Spatio-temporal variation and factors affecting European hare (Lepus europaeus) road mortality: Landcover diversity as a remedy

Mortality caused by animal-vehicle collisions is one of the major effects of growing road networks and traffic on wildlife. Our goal was to describe seasonal and spatial distributions and to test the effects of selected factors on the probability of vehicle collisions for the European hare, a species with a rapidly declining population, which had not been studied until now. We monitored collisions during 192 surveys on an 83.9 km-long route east of Prague, Czech Republic, from February 2022 to June 2024. The seasonality of vehicle collisions reflected the breeding season and showed inter-annual variations. We identified 3 hotspots of ≥ 10.8 vehicle collisions when using a buffer zone of 5 km, two of them fully overlapping with hotspots identified at a smaller scale. The probability of hare-vehicle collisions increased in localities farther away from urban areas, forests, and seminatural vegetation. We conclude that increasing land cover diversity may be a simple mitigation measure for reducing hare road mortality. Road signs may be used to alert drivers to moving hares at hotspots of road mortality. • European hare-vehicle collisions (HVC) reach seasonal peak in early spring. • HVCs cluster at distances of 0–2 km. • The location of hotspots of HVCs was largely consistent across spatial scales. • Habitat diversity decreases the risk of hare-vehicle collisions. • Mitigation measures shall be applied in hotspots and during the temporal peak of HVCs.