Badgers, black bears and beavers are only a few of the species that were victims of Alberta’s roads last year.

According to Alberta Wildlife Watch, a provincial government program, more than 7,400 animals were reported as roadkill in 2025 — about a 13 per cent increase from 2024 and the highest ever recorded by the program.

Nearly two-thirds of the roadkill reported last year were “large-bodied animals,” which the province defines as wolf-sized or larger.

That includes more than 4,700 deer — 470 of which were moose, 138 elk and one threatened woodland caribou.

The data does not include national parks as those roads are administered by Parks Canada.

Ruiping Luo, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association, said there could be multiple factors behind the documented increase in fatal collisions, including urban sprawl across Alberta.

“If you have urban sprawl, you’re seeing increases in the number of roads and the number of places that animals have to cross,” she said.

“Indirectly, urban sprawl usually means there’s more people, and if there’s more people, there’s often going to be more cars on the road.”

Beyond being observant, Luo says it can be difficult to mitigate animal-vehicle collisions on an individual level.

“For single drivers, it can be very hard to reduce collisions because animals are unpredictable, and those collisions often happen very quickly,” she said.

In a statement, Alberta’s Ministry of Transportation and Economic Corridors pointed to investments the province is making.

“The Government of Alberta remains committed to investing in mitigating animal-vehicle collisions on provincial highways to improve the safety of the traveling public while providing safe crossing locations for wildlife,” the statement reads.

It highlights spending $11 million on the recently completed Rock Creek Wildlife Underpass near Crowsnest Pass and $17.5 million on the Honourable Peter Lougheed Wildlife Overpass east of Canmore.

Actual roadkill numbers could be higher, study suggests

A 2021 study from the Miistakis Institute found the number of animals killed by vehicles could be significantly higher than what’s reported by the province.

Findings from the Calgary-based research organization suggest that over a five-year period along a stretch of highway in the Crowsnest Pass, the number of animals actually killed by vehicle collisions is nearly three times more than what’s reported by Alberta Wildlife Watch.

“Usually [the province] reports on carcasses that are found on the highway right away, but a lot of animals are hit and then they wander off the highway and die later,” said Tracy Lee, director of conservation research with the Miistakis Institute.

Multiple wildlife crossings and fencing projects are underway along that stretch of highway.

Small animals killed by vehicles are also harder to track.

“We have very poor understanding for smaller mammals and amphibian species,” Lee said. “Partly because they’re hard to see, and they disappear very quickly after they’re killed … so it takes pretty intensive surveying to understand the impact on these smaller species.”

The number of smaller animals recorded by the province has steadily increased over the past five years, while larger roadkill numbers have remained more stable.

“Medium and small bodied animals are significantly more susceptible to seasonal variation in animal carcass records due to seasonal population changes and their susceptibility to scavenging activities,” the government said in its statement.

Aside from mammals, the data also contains carcass records of dead reptiles and birds, including more than 100 birds of prey, such as owls, eagles and hawks.

Nearly 250 dead snakes were reported. No amphibians were included in the findings.

Lee said reporting roadkill findings on citizen science platforms like iNaturalist can help provide better monitoring for research purposes.

No grizzly roadkill reported, but multiple collisions known to have happened

From 2013 to 2022, vehicle collisions were the leading cause of grizzly bear mortality, but no grizzly bear roadkill carcasses were reported by the province in 2025. Two were recorded the year prior. 

That doesn’t include data from Alberta’s national parks. Four grizzlies were killed by vehicles last year in Banff National Park, including three hit by trains and one struck by a vehicle on the Trans-Canada Highway.

“It might seem like it’s just one or two, but it adds up, and especially where populations are already not that high, every kill does impact the population,” Luo said.

Grizzly bears have low reproductive rates — adults typically begin breeding when they’re five to eight, and sows have one litter every three to five years after that — which contributes to their at-risk status.

The latest findings indicate 34 black bears were fatally struck by vehicles in 2025.

Provincial projects in known bear habitat, including the completed wildlife overpass east of Canmore and a planned Island Ridge wildlife crossing structure along Highway 3 in the Crowsnest Pass, aim to mitigate bear-vehicle collisions.