Heard that too on Badgers - wouldn't surprise me if it applied to other predatory species found beside roads. Few will be collected for autopsies, so it's a convenient way for gamekeepers to dispose of their crimes.Has anyone ever seen a roadkilled Badger in the middle of the road. I can never understand how every single one I see is in the verge. You'd think, statistically, 50% would be in the middle of the road?
There is a "suggestion" that many roadkill badgers aren't roadkill, but killed by other means, and then dumped by the roadside.
Pheasants are complete nutters, not surprised they top the bird list. I hit one a few years back. Turned the car round to see if it was actually dead and not suffering (it was a glancing knock), and promptly hit another one!
Has anyone ever seen a roadkilled Badger in the middle of the road. I can never understand how every single one I see is in the verge. You'd think, statistically, 50% would be in the middle of the road?
There is a "suggestion" that many roadkill badgers aren't roadkill, but killed by other means, and then dumped by the roadside.
Pheasants are complete nutters, not surprised they top the bird list. I hit one a few years back. Turned the car round to see if it was actually dead and not suffering (it was a glancing knock), and promptly hit another one!
Another possibility is that just as with your pheasant, people stop to see if the animal is dead and move it if it is? I think if animals are killed illegaly, there are much easier and more discreet ways of getting rid of them than dumping them roadside?
Hedgehogs don't stand a chance.
John
Oh, I don't know, I managed to dodge one a couple of days ago.
Good year tick! They're so rare now round here you don't even see dead ones. :-C
John
Has anyone ever seen a roadkilled Badger in the middle of the road. I can never understand how every single one I see is in the verge. You'd think, statistically, 50% would be in the middle of the road?
There is a "suggestion" that many roadkill badgers aren't roadkill, but killed by other means, and then dumped by the roadside.
Surprised Rabbits don't feature more prominently, though their population has been low due to diseases the last 2 or 3 years until this year. I'm seeing a lot more live Rabbits this year so there may be more roadkilled now too.
Jon Turner;3873624 And small mammals will disintegrate quickly - especially on a Motorway. :C[/QUOTE said:Not so much disintegrate as get trodden into the road and become invisible, very quickly. There's kind of a critical size at which animals move from being avoided when dead by car drivers - truck drivers don't need to bother except for really big animals like deer - to being just a minor bump that isn't worth risking steering around.
But I would also say there's a size at which carrion becomes hard to move - motorway verges have a lot of dead pheasants on, so I assume these are hard to lift for Southern UK raptors, whereas rabbits are maybe just a bit less awkward to move.
Very small mammals vanish in minutes - I found a run-over Bank Vole years ago (identified from bi-coloured tail of suitable length) and when I passed again less than an hour later it was just a stain on the road.
John