A perspectiva da mídia online sobre os acidentes entre veículos e animais em rodovias brasileiras: uma questão de segurança?

Wildlife-vehicle collisions are a concern for public security and biodiversity conservation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accidents caused by wildlife-vehicle collisions, analyzing the animals involved, the number of deceased and injured people, as well as the space and time distribution of accidents in Brazil. Therefore, we use as sampling method, news on accidents between vehicles and animals recorded in Brazil over a 5 years period, available on the web. We analyzed 125 accidents including 135 animals, 66 dead people, 166 injured people and 73 dead animals. The main result was that most of the accidents involved domestic animals, causing mainly injured people; however, accidents with wildlife caused more deceases, particularly involving capybaras. In addition, we discussed the most suitable mitigation measures and the economic sectors that could be interested in this issue.