Chapter 17
Wildlife Deterrent Methods
for Railways—An Experimental Study
Andreas Seiler and Mattias Olsson
Abstract Since reliable accident statistics and consequent costs have become
available, train collisions with wildlife, especially ungulates, have received
increasing attention in Sweden. In contrast to collisions on roads, accidents
involving wildlife on railways do not entail human injury or death, but can cause
substantial train damage and lead to significant delays in railway traffic.
Wildlife-train collisions (WTC) are rising in numbers and railways appear as a
greater source of ungulate mortality per kilometer than roads. Nevertheless, railways are largely unprotected against wildlife collisions, and mitigation measures
that have hitherto been applied to roads are either infeasible or economically
unviable for railways. The Swedish Transport Administration is therefore seeking
innovative and cost-effective measures for preventing collisions with larger wild
animals. In this chapter, we present research on WTC in Sweden that has been used
to define the baseline and set up criteria for a new mitigation project. This project
aims to develop warning or deterring signals that encourage animals to leave the
railway shortly before trains arrive. This will be carried out at several experimental
crosswalks for animals along fenced railways where the effect of different signals
on animal behaviour can be evaluated. If effective, these deterrent systems could
replace fencing and/or crossing structures, and reduce mortality and barrier effects
on wildlife. The project was begun in 2015 and will continue for at least 4 years.
Keywords Accident prevention Á Animal-deterrent Á Crosswalk Á Deer-train
accidents Á Exclusion fences Á Hotspots Á Wildlife-train collisions Á
Wildlife-warning
A. Seiler (&)
Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,
SLU, Riddarhyttan, Sweden
e-mail: andreas.seiler@slu.se
M. Olsson
EnviroPlanning AB, Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: mattias.olsson@enviroplanning.se
© The Author(s) 2017
L. Borda-de-Água et al. (eds.), Railway Ecology,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57496-7_17
277
Wildlife Deterrent Methods
for Railways—An Experimental Study
Andreas Seiler and Mattias Olsson
Abstract Since reliable accident statistics and consequent costs have become
available, train collisions with wildlife, especially ungulates, have received
increasing attention in Sweden. In contrast to collisions on roads, accidents
involving wildlife on railways do not entail human injury or death, but can cause
substantial train damage and lead to significant delays in railway traffic.
Wildlife-train collisions (WTC) are rising in numbers and railways appear as a
greater source of ungulate mortality per kilometer than roads. Nevertheless, railways are largely unprotected against wildlife collisions, and mitigation measures
that have hitherto been applied to roads are either infeasible or economically
unviable for railways. The Swedish Transport Administration is therefore seeking
innovative and cost-effective measures for preventing collisions with larger wild
animals. In this chapter, we present research on WTC in Sweden that has been used
to define the baseline and set up criteria for a new mitigation project. This project
aims to develop warning or deterring signals that encourage animals to leave the
railway shortly before trains arrive. This will be carried out at several experimental
crosswalks for animals along fenced railways where the effect of different signals
on animal behaviour can be evaluated. If effective, these deterrent systems could
replace fencing and/or crossing structures, and reduce mortality and barrier effects
on wildlife. The project was begun in 2015 and will continue for at least 4 years.
Keywords Accident prevention Á Animal-deterrent Á Crosswalk Á Deer-train
accidents Á Exclusion fences Á Hotspots Á Wildlife-train collisions Á
Wildlife-warning
A. Seiler (&)
Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,
SLU, Riddarhyttan, Sweden
e-mail: andreas.seiler@slu.se
M. Olsson
EnviroPlanning AB, Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: mattias.olsson@enviroplanning.se
© The Author(s) 2017
L. Borda-de-Água et al. (eds.), Railway Ecology,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57496-7_17
277