UK roadkill stats (1 Viewer)

tyson · Jul 22, 2019

I’ve seen plenty of dead badgers in the middle of the road.

And every dead badger I have ever checked has appeared to be a genuine road-killed Badger. Badger baiters(as long as they kill badgers at the sett where they have dug them) usually bury the bodies in the hole they have dug, to take the badgers out).

So I would say that most badgers bodies on roads are road-kill. With the odd exception.

I’ve come across foxes, badgers, hares, squirrels, hedgehogs, rabbits
, owls & other bird species all of which have been hit by cars but not killed. It’s disappointing that people leave them lying suffering by/on the road.

Nutcracker · Jul 22, 2019

tyson said:
And every dead badger I have ever checked has appeared to be a genuine road-killed Badger. Badger baiters(as long as they kill badgers at the sett where they have dug them) usually bury the bodies in the hole they have dug, to take the badgers out).

I at least was thinking more of gamekeepers, than badger-baiters. They seem more prone to extreme measures to dispose of potentially incriminating evidence - some keepers have been known to take satellite-tagged raptor carcasses out to sea for disposal, to make it look like they "got lost at sea and drowned" (that the location plot showed the bird following an A road to a port before going out to sea rather gave it away though!).

wildfire68 · Jul 22, 2019

keith said:
I live near RSPB Saltholme, Teesside, the reserve is surrounded by roads where people drive so fast with no concern or thought about wildlife, an Otter family got wiped out in no time a few years ago, dare I suggest speed limits could be applied near nature reserves?, then again, who is there to police it?

A good idea.
Perhaps rather than a possibly unenforceable speed limit a few strategically placed speed bumps would help?

Nutcracker · Jul 22, 2019

wildfire68 said:
A good idea.
Perhaps rather than a possibly unenforceable speed limit a few strategically placed speed bumps would help?

Easier said than done on a major A road carrying a lot of heavy tanker traffic, unfortunately.

wildfire68 · Jul 22, 2019

Ahh, I see.
Probably not a good idea then.
Any chance of a re route or wildlife tunnels?

tyson · Jul 26, 2019

Nutcracker said:
I at least was thinking more of gamekeepers, than badger-baiters. They seem more prone to extreme measures to dispose of potentially incriminating evidence - some keepers have been known to take satellite-tagged raptor carcasses out to sea for disposal, to make it look like they "got lost at sea and drowned" (that the location plot showed the bird following an A road to a port before going out to sea rather gave it away though!).

Sounds about right - a gamekeeper that doesn’t have a normal amount of brain cells.

A gamekeeper got sacked, local to me, last year for snaring a Badger. He admitted the snare was his but said that he had deactivated it. And his defence was that animal activists had put the badger in the snare to make the gamekeeper look responsible for the Badgers death.

The gamekeeper was found guilty and lost his gun licence, job, house and was fined.

It’s always worth checking Badger carcasses when it’s safe to do so. I know some people who are very through and they use a metal detector to see if the badger may have been shot. The trouble is that if you find that the Badger has been killed unlawfully, you have no way of finding out who killed it

Farnboro John · Jul 27, 2019

tyson said:
The gamekeeper was found guilty and lost his gun licence, job, house and was fined.

The gun license is key: gamekeepers need them AND they are held at the discretion of HMG. Only in wildlife crime by gamekeepers has possession of a criminal record ever not resulted in loss of Firearms License. Job and house follow. The fine should be not only for gamekeeper but a massive one for employer.

John

Dylan Tillyard · Jul 23, 2020

Looking for Roadkill eaters!

Hello,

My name is Dylan, I study Documentary at University. I'm looking for someone who eats roadkill (or know someone who does) for a short documentary.

If you can help, please reply on here or email me [email protected]

UK roadkill stats (1 Viewer)

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