Alberta’s latest roadkill numbers highest ever recorded by carcass monitoring program

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.

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.