Wildlife on Roads in Ontario

Ontario is a large province with tens of thousands of kilometers of roads interspersed among its diversity of wildlife populations and there is no point more than 1.5 km from a road. Historical trends have shown that Ontario’s road network has increased five-fold between 1935 and 1995, and will continue to expand in order to meet the demands of an estimated 30% population growth by 2031. Road mortality has been identified as a threat for many of Ontario’s amphibians, turtles and snakes but not a lot is known about our mammals and birds that are killed on roads.

Solutions such as wildlife crossing structures and fencing are effective at reducing road-kill and landscape fragmentation. However, implementation requires awareness as well as precise data to inform where and what animals are being road-killed, because measures are both site- and species-specific. Mainstream data sources collected by road agencies exist, but are primarily comprised of large mammals because these animals pose a safety hazard to motorists. To fill in data gaps, more attention is being drawn to citizen science data for smaller animals.

This inaturalist project was started as part of a Handbook compilation titled: Wildlife on Roads in Ontario. The Handbook provides the tools and guidance to empower citizen scientists and road maintenance workers to collect accurate wildlife on-road data for use in evaluating road impacts, and to implement effective solutions. In turn, these data can supplement recovery efforts for wildlife threatened by roads. Please input your observation here and we will do our best to put them to use! less ↑