Wildlife-Vehicle Collisions (WVC)
On average, a larger mammal is killed by a vehicle every 90 to 120 seconds in Germany. At the same time, around 10 people die every year in Germany as a result of wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) and 2.500 people suffer minor to serious injuries. In 2023, the damage sustained by vehicles amounted to around 1.1 billion Euros, which is covered annually by insurance companies - and this figure is rising every year! According to recent scientific calculations, the estimated number of unreported wildlife-vehicle collisions is three million mammals and 16 million birds killed per year on German roads. In addition to a significant risk to traffic safety, wildlife-vehicle collisions cause great animal suffering and biodiversity loss through genetic impoverishment and even the local extinction of entire wildlife populations.
In Germany, there is no uniform and common approach to reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions and there are still major gaps in knowledge. The working group covers various focal points:
- Hotspots of wildlife-vehicle collisions in Baden-Württemberg
- Effect of mitigation techniques
- Influencing factors of wildlife-vehicle collisions
- Working group “Traffic Safety & Wildlife”
- Contract research and committee work in Germany
- Wildlife behavior in wildlife-vehicle collisions
