Slower than the Trains! Railway Mortality Impacts Especially Snails on a Railway in the Apuseni Mountains, Romania

While effects of some linear infrastructures on biodiversity are well understood, the direct effect of railways on the fauna (mortality) is known only for some vertebrate groups. We recorded animal mortality on a 15-km-long railway sector in western Romania. In total, 11 687 animals killed by trains were found of which most were invertebrates (99.19%). Almost 3/4 of dead animals (gastropods and mammals) had been killed long before the study began. Just like roads, this railway affected especially invertebrates, but proximity to a river could have biased our results.