Evaluating the potential of the Otto® Wildlife GPS device to record roadside moose and deer locations for use in wildlife vehicle collision mitigation planning

Abstract

Wildlife vehicle collisions present a serious challenge to road safety. Although spatially accurate wildlife collision data is necessary to identify areas where wildlife vehicle collisions are recurrent, global positioning system technology has seldom been operationally used to mark roadkilled carcass or roadside live animal points of interest. We modified an existing global positioning system based device (Otto-Driving Companion®) to record roadside live sightings and carcass locations of deer (Odocoileus spp.) and moose (Alces alces) in northern British Columbia, Canada and assess the operational feasibility of the device to quickly and reliably collect data. Ten modified Otto-Driving Companion® units were installed in commercial semi-trailer trucks and roadside points of interest were recorded between July 2006 and May 2007. The device was straightforward to install and operate, and functioned proficiently for data collection. Data transfers from the units to the researchers were simple and fast. Maps showing live sighting and carcass points of interest were easily created from the data. While methodologies remain to be developed to normalise the data and minimise temporal biases arising from non systematic data collection, the modified Otto-Driving Companion® demonstrated it is well suited to the collection of roadside wildlife points of interest for a variety of operational and research purposes.