130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe

Recent developments
As discussed above, Roe deer account for a large
proportion of vehicle collision accidents in many
European countries, for example in Germany [37] .
The number of individuals killed on roads is
likely to rise in future, due both to increasing deer
population density and continued fragmentation
of the landscape through infrastructure development.
In addition, Europe’s large predators are
making a comeback in many regions, which may
have an impact on Roe deer population size in
some areas. There is also growing evidence that
the species can be outcompeted by the sympatric
Red deer. For example, Roe deer numbers are
suppressed in areas with high Red deer density
in Scotland [48] and Portugal [49] , while Roe fawns
show lower body mass in areas where Red deer are
present [50] . The maintenance of Roe deer populations
may thus not be compatible with artificial
restocking of areas with other ungulates or with
the natural increase of wild and domestic ungulate
species [41] . While this issue is unlikely to affect the
species as a whole, it could be a concern at a local
level, and should be taken into account when
designing community composition in rewilding
areas [41] .
Overall, however, the Roe deer is not facing any
major threats [3, 15] and increasing both globally [3]
and in Europe [15] . Because the species has already
made the successful shift from forest to more
open landscapes, it has probably colonised all
available habitat across Europe, and is therefore
unlikely to show further range expansion in the
future. In many countries, densities may still rise,
but increases are not expected everywhere, e.g. in
Slovenia [29] or at the southern edge of its range in
Iberia [51] .
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