May 27, 2021—A study has found a new antagonist for collision repair shops—wolves.
According to an Associated Press report, University of Wisconsin, Madison scientists published a study that found the presence of wolves in a given geographical county reduces the amount of deer and vehicle collisions by about 24 percent.
“When you have a major predator around, it impacts how the prey behave,” Dominic Parker, a natural resources economist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and co-author of the study, told the AP. “Wolves use linear features of a landscape as travel corridors, like roads, pipelines and stream beds. Deer learn this and can adapt by staying away.”
A decline in deer vehicle collisions isn’t inconsequential. In 2008, a study for the U.S. Department of Transportation estimated deer vs. car crashes cost more than $8 billion annually.
