야생동물사고사 자료 수집 현황 및 문제점에 관한 연구

A Study on the Present Condition of Roadkill Research Datum Collection and Problems

As more highways are constructed and more cars are running on them, toll of roadkill steadily increases. To make the problem more serious, roadkill include endangered species. This study compared two sets of roadkill data of selected Korean highways. One set of data were produced, as a routine job of everyday, by the Korea Highway Corporation (KHC), and the other by a team of wildlife researchers for a limited period of time for research purposes. The aims of the comparison were to identify if the species of the animal, location of the roadkill, time, and other information were kept reasonably, especially in the forms provided to the patrols of KHC, to be used for research purposes later. Major findings and suggestions are; 1) KHC patrols are not wildlife professionals, which is understandable, and could not identify some animal species killed on the highways. As they also are not aware of the importance of the accurate data for the wildlife protection, education to promote their awareness is needed. 2) Current form used by the patrols is far from enough to produce good data for research. A new and detailed form needs to be designed and provided to the patrols so that they can keep all the necessary data on roadkills for monitoring and research purposes. If these issues are addressed, the data collected daily by KHC will become good inputs for roadkill researches in Korea.