Roadkill

[Miss Chicken]

A recent survey in Tasmania has said that close to 300,000 animals are killed on out roads each year.

While I was sitting at the bus-stop today I was listening to a couple of men discussing this issue and the reasons why the roadkill numbers are so high. One of the men suggested that the figure is higher in Tasmania than other states because we have much more abundant wildlife than most of the other Australian states. The other guy suggested that in other states there are vans that go around removing the roadkill (which doesn't happen in Tasmania).

So I thought I would ask people about how much roadkill do you see around where you live?

What animals do you see as roadkill?

Have you hit animals while driving?

If you have, do you check to see if the animal is dead and remove it to the side of the road?

 

[JimCasy]

Most of what I see here in Iowa is deer. Also skunks, squirrels and raccoons.

The only animals I've ever hit are a bunny (right after prom, kinda brought down the mood) and a bird that dive-bombed my windshield when I was going about 80mph.

I've hit a dead deer though. It was at night, and by the time I saw it I couldn't swerve or I would hit the car in the next lane. My car just ramped the damn thing, and it had such a huge rack on it I thought it was going to tear out my undercarriage.

 

[Krieg1981]

I've struck one of the thousands of grey squirrels we have around here. Also, I may have hit a Moose....but it was dark.

 

[unimatrix7]

In general, Tasmania is a horrible place to drive.

Firstly, the less said about Tasmanian drivers (myself included), the better.

Secondly, our the CBDs of our two main population centres are horribly designed. Hobart is a spacious and relatively small city that is inexplicably prone to gridlock at all hours of the day. There was also that unfortunate Tasman Bridge incident in the 70s. Launceston is a maze of multi-laned, one-way streets that make navigation extremely difficult unless you're fortunate enough to have lived there all your life and memorised the grid. However, there are few sights as hilarious as seeing a vehicle with Victorian license plates turn the wrong way into a one-way street in the middle of the city...so I guess that justified it

Anyway, back on topic. One of my teachers once told me that the reason we have so much roadkill here is because Tasmanian highways are considerably less trafficked than mainland routes, so animals don't instinctively avoid them. But yeah, it's pretty bad when you see more wallaby (and echidna - i love those little guys) corpses on the sides of the highway between Launceston and Hobart than you do between Melbourne and Sydney.

Go figure.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I wonder if Tasmania's winding roads contribute to the road kill problem? On the Mainland the roads (on a whole) are far straighter so maybe wildlife is also easier to spot. On a visit from South Australia my nephew found the roads, especially on the West Coast, difficult to drive along.

The report said on of the worst areas for roadkill was the Tasman Peninsula. There you have a narrow winding road that is heavily used (as it leads to one of Tasmania's most important historic sites - Port Arthur).

Part of the problems with the design of Hobart CBC is that one of the early governors set down a plan that looked good on paper but did not take into account Hobart's hills. Also the CBC is only a couple of bloacks from the wharves. The fact that we don't have passenger trains or trams probably make the problems worse.

BTW I, and many other Hobartians, found travelling across the river after the collapse of the Tasman Bridge back in the 70s rather enjoyable. The ferries were fantastic and workers could have a couple of pints on their way home.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I hit an opossum once. We have a lot of them here around Orange County. Ugly suckers.

I didn't hit it myself, but this poor duck got caught in a wind pocket between my car and a semi truck in the next lane on the freeway and couldn't get out of it. It was bizarre driving with this duck flying right next to my window for a good half a mile. I wanted to change lanes to give it a way out but there was too much traffic. It eventually got sucked under the truck's wheels.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I hit an opossum once. We have a lot of them here around Orange County. Ugly suckers.

I didn't hit it myself, but this poor duck got caught in a wind pocket between my car and a semi truck in the next lane on the freeway and couldn't get out of it. It was bizarre driving with this duck flying right next to my window for a good half a mile. I wanted to change lanes to give it a way out but there was too much traffic. It eventually got sucked under the truck's wheels.

 

[unimatrix7]

I wonder if Tasmania's winding roads contribute to the road kill problem? On the Mainland the roads (on a whole) are far straighter so maybe wildlife is also easier to spot. On a visit from South Australia my nephew found the roads, especially on the West Coast, difficult to drive along.

The report said on of the worst areas for roadkill was the Tasman Peninsula. There you have a narrow winding road that is heavily used (as it leads to one of Tasmania's most important historic sites - Port Arthur).

I think that might be right, especially since part of the reason for Targa Tasmania's existence is the windy and challenging nature of our roads

 

[NCC1701]

Most of the roadkill here seems to consist of possums, pukekoes and other medium-sized birds. There are quite a number of them too, considering I drive a lot on rural roads, though suburban areas aren't immune to the roadkill it seems.

The only animal I've ever hit was a pukeko that attempted to play chicken with my car when I was driving to my girlfriend's place, flying out from the bushes and diving right in front of my car, though he seemed to be okay walking away from behind my car, still kinda feel sorry for hitting the poor bugger though . I haven't even told my girlfriend that story, probably the wrong thing to do considering she's an animal lover and a vegetarian.

 

[Deckerd]

In the UK hedgehogs get killed more than anything else. Then, in rough order; pheasants, rabbits, cats and deer.

I forgot foxes. They're in there somewhere too.

 

[Star Wolf]

I hit an opossum once. We have a lot of them here around Orange County. Ugly suckers.

Next door in LA County I grew up across the street from the oil fields where the Baldwin Hills dam burst back in the 1960s. When I was a kid the empty lots around the oil fields had plenty of skunks and you did smell them when they were killed. In the 80s the city and county turned those lots into parks and exterminated the skunks. Now we see opossum both trying to get into those hign tech city garbage cans and as roadkill. But the most commen roadkill is still the dog and cat. Often dead fighting dogs are just dumped and are not actual roadkill.

 

[Sledder]

Lots of skunks and raccoons around here, some times of year you can't drive far without seeing one dead on the road.

 

[Sakrysta]

Deer
Possums
Squirrels
Armadillo
Raccoons
the occasional Skunk
Cats
Dogs

I think the only thing I've hit is a squirrel. I didn't stop to check on it or anything. There are too many squirrels in town as it is.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I've never hit an animal (thank god) but on my way to work I regularly see newly squashed hedgehogs or rabbits/hares on the road every 2 to 3 months. The route I take to work has fields and woods on each side and no street lights so at night they probably run into the road and get stunned by the headlights.

 

[dave_R_treker]

A deer ran into the front side of my car a few years ago. Didn't really cause much damage. A small dent actually.

I have ran over a couple of small critters, squarls etc.
Though the sunday before last I ran over a ratcoon. Dam that sucker was big. No damage to underneith my car thank god.

 

[JuanBolio]

I've hit a possum, a skunk (car stunk for a week), and what I think was a kitten () before.

Once someone driving in front of my sister-in-law hit a deer, breaking its legs. She went and got me and my brother, we checked with the cops, killed it, butchered it, and ate it. Another time I was with my brother and his friend, driving up north for some hunting. We winged a deer on the way to the cabin, my brother (drunk) further wounded it with an arrow, and I finished it off with a cinder block. Also butched and eaten.

 

[Colonel Green]

I've only ever hit a rabbit.

Drove across Canada a couple years ago, saw squirrels, a deer, foxes, a coyote, several porcupines, a badger, raccoons, many birds, and many things I couldn't id.

 

[judge alba]

most of the road kill i see are cats,foxes,loads of rabits,pheasents,seagulls oh and a badger once
never hit anything whilist one my bike, well apart from an old bloke who decieded to cross when i was within ten feet of him dont think he counts he got up and curse before hobbling off

 

[John Clark]

Don't see much here, but it's usually squirrels. Occasionally, there's a fox or a bird. We don't see too many hedgehogs (they seem to stick to the gardens)

Near us, the couple of badgers we know about are way too skittish to go near the roads.

 

[Gaseous Anomaly]

Armadillos and skunks litter the roads here.