Wildlife and Vehicles: Analysis of Growing Conflict—a Case of the Sverdlovsk Oblast

The dynamics of the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) in the Sverdlovsk region for the period from 2012 to 2022 is analyzed. The species composition of animals affected by WVC is sharply shifted towards ungulates. The number of collisions with roe deer and moose grows faster than the animals’ population abundance by an average of 3.1 times. The seasonal peak of incidents occurs in May–July for moose and Siberian roe deer, and in September–October for wild boar. A strong correlation between the number of WVC, roe deer and moose numbers and traffic volume was revealed. The rate of increase in the number of animals is about 31 and 33% (for roe deer and moose, respectively) of the rate of increase in the number of accidents, while the rate of increase in the number of cars on the roads is 7–10% of that. We hypothesize that the effect of animals’ population growth on the growth in the number of accidents is higher than the effect of the growth in traffic volume.