Every Where I Drive See Road Kill

Paladin1950

Paladin1950

Still love 50's & 60's music!
Location
Mohawk Valley, NY
Do you live in an area where animals are constantly being killed by cars and trucks? In my area, it seems to be in phases. First I was seeing dead deer. Then for awhile, it was mainly skunks. Then it was time for the squirrels. I was seeing dead squirrels every where. Now for the past month or so, it's been strictly raccoons. Must be a seasonal thing when certain animals are more active.

I think we humans thin out the animal populations more when we're driving than hunting. Actually I don't hunt. Several months I killed a woodchuck (groundhog) with my car. It was waddling across the road. I was honking my horn. They must have bad eyesight and hearing. It was under my car and I heard a thump. It must have hit a tire. I looked through my rear view mirror, and saw it flopping around on the road. First animal I ever hit, to my knowledge.
 

It is the time for them to leave mom's home and go off on their own and find their territory for when mating season
begins in January. My late hubby was an avid hunter who bred, raised and trained champion hunting dogs.
So I kinda know stuff on this.
 
We're crowding wildlife out of their home-turfs, building neighborhoods and businesses where they live. And then you've got people abandoning their pets when they move to a place that doesn't allow pets or that charge a hefty deposit for each pet. That happens a lot. Really a lot.

It would be awesome if every new neighborhood built an enclosed sanctuary for animals native to the area. They could build them at the edge of a nice community park and make it sort of like a zoo, and charge admission and sell little bags of animal snacks.

If bears are the native animal, that's a different story. First off, it would take a really large vehicle to make road kill out of them. You just gotta stay out of their way.
 

Paladin1950 said:
Do you live in an area where animals are constantly being killed by cars and trucks? In my area, it seems to be in phases. First I was seeing dead deer. Then for awhile, it was mainly skunks. Then it was time for the squirrels. I was seeing dead squirrels every where. Now for the past month or so, it's been strictly raccoons.
Click to expand...
Not so much in my area, but I just returned from a short overnight road trip today, and it was *exactly* like you've said... must have seen 15 raccoons on the road... and I noted how strange that was. There was also a couple of groundhogs and one skunk, but the raccoon thing was very noticeable.
 
I come from a rural Michigan area and had to walk a few miles to an industrial park where I worked in an auto parts factory. There was always road kill around. Most of the time I could cross the road to avoid them. However during heavy traffic, I had to step over them. Bad smell, gore and all. I got used to it and it didn't bother me all.
 
@Murrmurr there are loads of natural habitats, national parks and such here in Missouri but sadly some animals you can not fence
in and expect them to keep breeding and over populate an area. Raccoons are one such animal as well as squirrel and those types.
Since moving back to Missouri there are less coon hunters than when I lived here before and I have noticed the numbers of them
on the highway, especially, largely increased since I last lived here.
Unless some sort of birth control can be used to control breeding, sadly we will see this. I agree our increase in subdivisions are
contributing but so is the lack of keeping the numbers down by lawful hunting seasons and lack of hunters for some species.
It's a viscous cycle, an ugly reality, I sure don't know the answer that would please everyone. If woodland animals don't have the
space needed to accumulate the mass, they fight viscously, destroy public property and many times become diseased. I have
seen a raccoon attack a dog and it was not pretty in the least. I'd hate to see a child stumble onto that.
I will add here, the coon hound does not attack the raccoon, it simply signals by different barks what it's doing (picking up scent, tracking the scent, treeing the raccoon). It is the hunter listens to his dogs signals, follows the dog then chooses to kill or not. I didn't know of one
hunter that went out on a killing spree and bagged more than 1 or 2 during a hunt. Guess what, they actually did use the meat for food to
feed their family.
It's hard for people who do not live in a rural area to understand the hunting thing. Hunters I have known have a deep respect for the
rules of nature and hunt to protect the population of a given species and their survival options.
You just have to live the life I guess to really get it.
 
I have a cabin up in the Sierras that my kids and I lived in off and on. Now my wife and I use it for weekend getaways and my sons and their families do, too.

One of the joys of living in a forest is waking up to several deer roaming around in your front yard. Another is sitting down to a scrumptious venison dinner.

Keeping a mutually beneficial balance isn't that complicated, but it requires education, compassion, and the will, and there's a lack of all 3 of those these days.
 
Here in Florida, we see dead gators that didn’t make it across the road and armadillos. The birds usually have some of it cleaned up pretty quick, except road crews have to remove the dead gators.
 
I was just thinking that the other day. Mostly small mammals like squirrels, rabbits, raccoons and opossums. Some are so mangled I can't tell what they were. I instinctively slow down if I see an animal start to dart into the road, but sometimes it can't be avoided. This time of year, many are so preoccupied with getting their living quarters prepared for winter and storing up a food supply, they aren't paying attention.
 
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Murrmurr said:
I have a cabin up in the Sierras that my kids and I lived in off and on. Now my wife and I use it for weekend getaways and my sons and their families do, too.

One of the joys of living in a forest is waking up to several deer roaming around in your front yard. Another is sitting down to a scrumptious venison dinner.

Keeping a mutually beneficial balance isn't that complicated, but it requires education, compassion, and the will, and there's a lack of all 3 of those these days.
Click to expand...
Yes, the will. Now days the ones that could have been hunters are sitting in these expanding subdivisions hunting video villains on their
game consol.
 
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