EFFECTIVENESS OF MITIGATION MEASURES TO REDUCE ROAD MORTALITY IN THE NETHERLANDS: BADGER MELES MELES

In the 1900‘s, the badger population of the Netherlands was estimated to count 2500 to 3000 setts with over 4000 individuals. Between then and the 1960‘s, the number declined drastically and stayed low until the mid-1980‘s with about 400 setts in the whole of the Netherlands. In the 1980‘s a high percentage of the population, locally up to 25%, was killed yearly by road traffic. For this reason the Dutch government implemented mitigation measures such as fauna tunnels and fences. It was easy to monitor the use of such measures. By census we know that the population increased to around 5000 ind... Mehr ...