Abstract
We analyzed factors affecting the road-kill frequency of red fox, Vulpes vulpes, including landscape structure around the roads, and harvest of sika deer, Cervus nippon yesoensis, for nuisance control and hunting in eastern Hokkaido, Japan. Generalized linear models explaining the road-kill frequency of red fox in each 2 km transect were generated for the birth and pup-rearing period, and for the dispersal and breeding period, using road-kill data for 2000 and 2009 on national roads. Model selection revealed that the road-kill frequency during birth and pup-rearing period increased with increasing proportion of grassland area and the number of deer harvested for hunting within a 1 km radius of the center of the transect. The road-kill frequency during the dispersal and breeding period was associated with landscape diversity index positively, and with deer density index negatively around the transect. These results suggest that important factors affecting red fox road-kill frequency differed between the two periods. We also suggest possible effects on red fox of landscape diversity, utilization of shot deer carcasses, and indirect effects of deer.
