Colorado Road Wildlife Watch

What is the system designed to do?

This web system can record observations from reporters out in the field who come across both live wildlife and road-killed wildlife. This includes the animal type and/or species found, location of the animal, time found, pictures of the animal, how long it might have been dead, and any additional details about road or traffic conditions. This information will be used to help understand animal-road interactions, to reduce amounts of road-kill, and to increase the safety of people on Colorado roads. Help us out by entering data you’ve collected.

Why do we want this information?

Information about where wildlife attempt to cross roads, what animals are involved, on what kinds of roads collisions are frequent, and other data that can help inform policy, management, and financial planning in reducing road-kill and habitat devastation. We will use this data to increase our understanding of animal-road interactions and what we can do to reduce road-kill. This will give us information to increase safety for both wildlife and humans. We will also use this information to understand how wildlife are distributed and move across the state.

Who will use the information?

High school and college students across Colorado, scientists, non-profit organizations and state agencies will use this information to understand the wildlife movement and conflicts with traffic/roads. This includes GIS and statistical modeling to predict wildlife crossings and areas of excessive road-kill occurrences, to measure the contributing factors to road-kill, to quantify impacts, and to estimate benefits of different remedial actions.