Road Kills. (1 Viewer)

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Anthony Morton

Well-known member

• Feb 26, 2006

• #1

I noticed 2 foxes and 3 badgers dead on a local road in just one 10 mile journey this week. Next day there were another 2 foxes and 1 badger dead on a 6 mile stretch of another local road. I also think there are sure to have been others which were hit by a vehicle but which managed to crawl away and die unseen.

This got me thinking, and I soon realised that I seem to have been seeing recent road kills on even the shortest journeys of late - mostly foxes and badgers, but also rabbits and the occasional hare as well. I also saw what I believe to have been a very flattened mink slap bang in the middle of the A5 road just south of Towcester. During the same period, however, I can't remember seeing any birds which had died in a similar fashion.

Is this apparently higher than usual level of carnage being noticed elsewhere?

 

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Eddie40

Active member

• Feb 26, 2006

• #2

It is the time of year that foxes and badgers are on the move, its the mating game you know. My reports to Badger groups increase this time of year, please contact your local group and report incidents, it helps to locate sets and they investigate the death, its not always a road accident. Your local Police wildlife liason officer or Wildlife Trust should be able to provide badger group contacts. Regarding foxes and other mammals killed contact your local Council Services.

 

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Mary Evelyn

New member

• Feb 26, 2006

• #3

Hi Anthony,

Lucky for me on our usual 12 mile route to work, we don't see any foxes or badgers,usually it is the odd hegehog and bird through the summer months.That does sound a lot to me although i suppose it depends on the area. :flyaway:

 

CornishExile

rydhsys rag Kernow lemmyn!

• Feb 27, 2006

• #4

Anthony Morton said:

During the same period, however, I can't remember seeing any birds which had died in a similar fashion.

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Eddie40 said:

It is the time of year that foxes and badgers are on the move, its the mating game you know. .

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There should shortly be the usual glut of dead male Pheasants on the country's roads - daft beasties lose all sense of danger (and often their lives too) at this time of year.

Reminds me of a splendid artist, June Kingsbury, who specialises in immortalising road kills in ceramics - she dips them, then fires them in a kiln, which reduces the dead animal to ash inside the ghostly white ceramic shell of its bodyshape. I seem to recall at one point she may have then returned the ceramic animals to the road where she found them, to spook the drivers and make a statement about the enormous toll on wildlife car ownership entails.

See the following link for a Kingsbury road kill squirrel: Squirrel

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walwyn

Well-known member

• Feb 27, 2006

• #5

From this time of year onwards I reckon on seeing at least 2 badgers and 1 fox dead on the A45 between Daventry and Birmingham each week. I've even seen what looks like a whole troup of badgers 4-5 adults and pups squished within a 200 yd streatch of road. What I find rather surprising is the number you see dead on the country back lanes too. Wouldn't have thought there was a) enough traffic, or b that it was moving fast enough. I also think that the tying of dead foxes spead eagle across farm gates is a bit weird too.

 

deborah4

Well-known member

• Feb 27, 2006

• #6

Hi Walwyn

I was just commenting on this tonight with a friend driving back to Brighton from Chichester (an A road) - I must have counted around 15 foxes, goodness knows how many rabbits, hedgehogs, a hawk (not much left and beyond ID), several carrion crows and half a dozen pheasants.

I don't drive, I hate seeing road kills. There is little excuse on minor roads and much of what is killed must be due to over speeding.

My friend and I had a long discussion - as a driver of course, he said he wouldn't stop or swerve if an animal ran out due to safety reasons. I said I think I would instinctively and would probably end up in a ditch or worse.

On major roads, as I counted the kills tonight, I thought why can't we build high fences alongside these roads? - I know, I know, - it would be too expensive

 

walwyn

Well-known member

• Feb 27, 2006

• #7

deborah4 said:

On major roads, as I counted the kills tonight, I thought why can't we build high fences alongside these roads? - I know, I know, - it would be too expensive

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They seem to do so in France at least along the motorways, and I don't recall seeing a single roadkill in 100s of miles of driving through France.

Eeriest thing I ever saw was a 100 yd stretch of the A3,at about 3am, where there were 2 or 3 dead deer and 3 dead foxes and another two live foxes tearing chunks off the deer.

 

deborah4

Well-known member

• Feb 27, 2006

• #8

The friend I was with tonight went to Lapland recently. He has not stopped talking about the dead deer on the roads. He said they were littered with them. We consoled ourselves with the fact that the carrion fed the bears, wolves and eagles that inhabit the forests where he was staying.

 

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Amarillo

Well-known member

• Feb 28, 2006

• #9

I think a large amount of roadkill could ironically be a good sign - i.e. that the mammal populations are healthy. If an area has no roadkill, surely it is a sign that there aren't many mammals in the area?

I certainly don't think road deaths are a major factor limiting British mammal populations.

I like to be optimistic anyway!