The Taiwan Roadkill Observation Network (TaiRON) has contributed 155 new incidents of primate roadkill to the GPRD. These 155 are all attributed to incidents of Formosan rock macaques (Macaca cyclopis) killed by vehicles in Taiwan between 2009 and 2023. The number of Formosan rock macaques in the database is now 192 (6.35% of the overall database), making the species the fourth most reported species in the database.
The TaiRON is a citizien science project that was initiated in 2011 by the Endemic Species Research Institute. Anyone can report incidents of roadkill to the organisation, who then analyse the data and use it to identify roadkill hotspots and at-risk species. Citizen science is an effective way to monitor roadkill, and the TaiRON is a brilliant example how collaboration between citizens and scientists can create meaningful and useful data.
Thank you to TaiRON founder, Te-En Lin, for organising and donating the data to the GPRD.