We have just got back from a weekend in York, where for the last day we went upto Malton between York & Scarborough.
This meant we had to drive up the A64 far further than we had to incidentally as we missed a sign post.
We were amazed at the amount of roadkill that there was on this road. We saw 1 deer,1 fox, 3 or 4 rabbits, loads of hedgepigs, many pheasants,other birds, lots unidentifiable.
I found myself thinking why is this. OK , yes easy answer being the traffic, but looking at the landscape , it was flat, fields either side , 4 lane road in places & unlit, but we were both still amazed to see that amount.

This post was last modified: 29-10-2007 05:24 PM by tibbar.

hi tibbar
i know a lot of deer in my area are killed on the road in usally in the same place i think they are like hares and rabbits and have established 'runs' they like to use. when the local gamekeepers release there pheasants for the shooting season loads are killed on the roads and as they are really very tame they are killed on the roads quite easyly, the trouble is when the pheasants are dead on the road foxs,crows,magpies,etc can become victims themselves while scavaging the remains.

I hate to say this, but some animals are pretty silly, as they forget there's a road there - I know it's not in their nature to know to look left & right before they cross, but a few weeks ago I was driving at night at speed (as one does) & my headlights caught a fox in the middle of the road, of course I braked & beeped & the fox went. Around half n'hour later, I was driving down the same road on the opposite side & the fox was there again! Also some drivers don't stop as it's dangerous, if you're on a fast road & you have a whole stream of traffic behind you (usually driving too close to your bumper) if you have to make an emergency stop, you've had it!

Yes Muntjac , you are right deer do have runs. Skip rescued a roe one night after it became stuck in metal railings. The fire engine went out & the crew used the spreaders on the railings. Apparently the roe had used this route many times but this night it did not account for how big it was as it had obviously grown & then got stuck. Even the security guard was interested & the firm said that they would leave the railings spread so it could still use it's route.

This post was last modified: 30-10-2007 05:16 PM by tibbar.

That was considerate of them to leave it open for the roe. I have only hit an animal once since I started driving, a blackbird that decided to land and stay right in front of me, and the whole thing left me upset even though there really was nothing I could have done. I know some people are more cold hearted than that and will not think twice about it, but the majority of the time the collisions are unavoidable from the cars point of view.

Remember also that if there are a lot of a species killed on the roads, that generally means that they are actually flourishing in the surrounding environment.

Its the poor hedgehogs I feel sorry for as they can't move fast enough to get out of the way even if they realised they were in danger. As munjac has already said, the pheasants released by gamekeepers are really tame and make no attempt to get out of the way, this time of the year I see loads killed on the country roads round here.

I have knocked down pheasants and rabbits before. It can be unavoidable at times.

tibbar - that was very good of the firm, not many company's would do that.

hi all
i have seen very few hedgehogs dead on the road this year,obviously this is good news but i am wondering if with the weather we have had this summer if it was a good breeding year for hedgehogs?

I'm not sure about whether it was a good year for hedgehogs, but I haven't seen many killed on the road either which suggests it wasn't. At least around my area anyway.

Pheasants are the worst to try and avoid, it isn't their fault that they don't get out the way, but it is understandable that sometimes a collisions is unavoidable.

I can't stand seeing any animal killed, but hedgehogs are definitely the worst as they are so helpless once they find themselves on a road!

I have to say I've knocked pheasants down on the odd occasion too. Sometimes if there is a car behind you and they wander out from the side of the road, it's either cause a car crash or hit the poor bird so you don't have much choice. That said, so many accidents could be avoided if people were more considerate with their speed on roads in the countryside, but in general that is never going to happen unfortunately.

As for the deer and the spacing in the gate, I'm impressed that they left it open for the deer, but I would have thought that would have been quite a security risk. Lets hope they checked with their insurance company first!