Railway mortality of animals; Wildlife-train collisions; Clustering; Spatial analyses; Rail network; Roe deer; Wild boar

Wildlife-train collisions (WTCs), particularly those with large mammals, pose a threat to the safety and continuity of rail operations. In this study, we collected 1,909 WTCs which took place in the Czech Republic between 2011 and 2019, in order to identify the most hazardous WTC locations and their spatial pattern. 208 WTC hotspots were identified using the KDE+ method. They contained 782 collisions (41.2%) and accounted for 0.7% of the Czech rail network length. We also identified and ranked the most important WTC hotspots using a collective risk parameter. WTCs occurred more frequently in the vicinity of a forest or stream and were more distant from arable land or urban/industrial areas than from other places on the entire Czech rail network. The results can help in placing crash-safety measures as a large proportion of accidents only occurred on less than 1% of the rail network.