UK Roadkill Records

Project Splatter

Description

The dataset is comprised of ad hoc records of animals seen dead on the road submitted primarily by members of the public (citizen scientists).

Geographic Description

The database covers the entire extent of the UK. As the database consists of roadkill records, occurrence of records may be higher in populated areas with more recorders. Records have been assigned a ten-figure grid reference during the process of data collation.

Purpose

The records were collected for the purposes of quantifying and mapping roadkill across the UK.

Data quality

As the process of data submission is not automated, all records from the previous week are examined and locations checked at least once a week. If the species is not known, then members of the public have the opportunity to submit their record at a higher taxonomic level (for example genus or family).

Methods

As a citizen science project, the majority of records were submitted to Project Splatter by members of the public. Through a variety of sources, such as Twitter, Facebook, smartphone applications, and our website. Due to the nature of the project, records are ad-hoc in nature, and are presence-only.

Citation

UK Roadkill Records, Project Splatter (2020)

Data generalisations

Project Splatter has been actively collecting roadkill records since the beginning of 2013, but some records may fall before this. Records before 2013 will only be sporadic records, however. The majority of records have an exact date of that the animal was found on (DD/MM/YYYY). Some records, however, do not have a date associated with the record. In these instances, the cell is left blank.

Information withheld

Additional information about the Project, and links to social media pages, can be found at www.projectsplatter.co.uk . Project Splatter is also available to answer any questions about the database.

Digitised records