Research overview: vehicle collisions as a leading mortality source for urban pumas

For pumas living in and around Los Angeles, collisions with vehicles on freeways and surface roads are among the most frequent documented causes of death. This overview synthesises telemetry-based mortality studies, roadkill records and movement analyses showing how high-traffic corridors both kill animals attempting to cross and deter crossings that would maintain gene flow. It examines how road density, traffic volume, fencing and the placement of culverts and overpasses shape risk, and how mitigation through crossing structures aims to reduce mortality while restoring connectivity. The synthesis ties individual roadkill events to population-level consequences for a wide-ranging carnivore in a freeway-dominated region.