Layer 3 — Roadkill hotspots

Understanding roadkill data: what iNaturalist tells us

How a crowdsourced dead-animal annotation becomes a movement map, and where the bias hides.

Why the data matters

Roadkill shows where wildlife moves, not just where it lives.

Where the data comes from

HuntTrack queries the iNaturalist observations API for records inside Idaho carrying the Alive/Dead annotation set to Dead. That single flag is the closest thing to a nationwide, daily-updated roadkill feed that anyone can use without a data-sharing agreement.

Observer bias in one sentence

Every point on the map required a person with a phone. Highway corridors, trailheads and towns are over-represented; roadless country is nearly blank. Absence of points is not absence of animals.

How to read a cluster

Look for repeat kills at the same road bend across multiple years and seasons. That repetition is the signal — a crossing that animals use habitually, usually a drainage, saddle or fence gap funnelling movement across the road.

Sources & further reading

This explainer is a stub — expand it with regional examples and screenshots as the layer matures.

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