Effects of Building a Highway and Wildlife Crossings in a Red Deer ( Cervus elaphus ) Habitat in Hungary

We examined how the movement of red deer ( Cervus elaphus ) was modified in an area that had a new fenced off highway built across it. The first step was the collection of data from the track marked for construction. We continued collect ing data on wildlife crossings after the construction of the highway and the completion of t he fences. After the completion of the highway, it was observed that only 5.9% of the original deer tr ack counts remained, spread across the crossings. After the construction was finished, the wider cros sing structures were used more often by deer for crossing to the other side of the highway than the smaller ones. During construction of the highway, a number of animals chose to walk tens of kilometres to get around the construction site instead of usin g the crossings. An existing highway, or a highway un der construction not only changes the frequency of deer crossings, but affects their distribution a s well. Wildlife crossing structure / red deer / Cervus elaphus / linear constructions / fragmentation / barrier effect