ROADKILL You've Seen Recently My morbid pastime while driving
What does it say about a guy when the highlight of his day is identifying fresh roadkill? Not to make light of the costs*, it is so much easier to identify the animal before it becomes flattened grotesquely upon the pavement.
Anyhow, I'm thinking different regions of the country might offer a variety — if we were to list the casualties we've noticed recently. Admittedly, positive identification is difficult at highway speeds, but here are some of the species I've seen this past summer:
Mule Deer Whitetailed Deer Pronghorn Striped Skunk Cottontail Rabbit Black-Tailed Prairie Dog American Badger Northern Raccoon North American Porcupine Red Fox Coyote House Cat Red Squirrel Prairie Rattlesnake Wild Turkey
How about you? *To the motoring public, an estimated over $8 billion annually in vehicle damage, as well as hundreds of severe injuries, including human deaths. And in some areas wildlife numbers and migration routes have been disrupted by vehicle collisions — some of which are due to speeding motorists.
Not a lot of variety around here. On local streets/highways, I mostly see raccoon, possum, skunk, and an occasional deer and domestic animals (dogs and cats).
At certain times of year in the warmer areas (North Bay or Central Valley) I've had bouts of seeing lots of snakes and lizards. I do not stop for closer ID, especially when the snakes aren't fully flattened and I'm not 100% sure if they are dead or sunning!
ETA: I'm usually biking in those areas, and it does give me a start to suddenly realize I'm riding right by or above a snake.
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peeb Let's see who's been naughty, and who's been naughty!
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Posted on: Sep. 25 2012, 11:28 am
I've seen our fair sanitation workers peeling raccoon, squirrel and cat off the pavement most recently. Lots of raccoons. Apparently they aren't too bright when crossing the road.
If we're out of town you can usually add white tailed deer and skunk to the mix.
-------------- It's all so simple when you break it down scientifically - Nick Bakay
Porcupine beaver, (did not see) but a student rescued the baby and the vet showed a class I was teaching crows, blacktail deer, mostly raccoons and possums 1 coyote but maybe more than a year ago cats & dogs, but no wonder because it is usually raining them.
-------------- If Light is in your heart, you will find your way Home. (Rumi)
The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth. Chinese proverb
Unfortunately, too often in my job I see roadkill of the human type. The most recent was a female cyclist just a few days ago.
Please, please, please, put down the cell phones, burritos, lattes, makeup, etc. etc. and pay attention to the road so everyone gets to go home at the end of the day.
Bobcat down here in AZ every once and a while…kind of breaks your heart to see that. Surprised me, but 2 badgers south of Wickenburg, AZ in this last year. Both had their heads flattened or I would have a badger skull on my book case at home right now. No, my wife would not approve, but that would be too bad.
Here in northern rural MO it is common to see opossum, dead snakes of a couple types, turkey vultures, coyotes, fox, rabbits, white tailed deer, raccoons, red tailed hawks, dogs, cats. All sorts of night crawlers after a good rain. Saw a dead ant once. Also saw a dead bald eagle. A couple of farmers throw out carcasses so they (a couple of dozen eagles) come over from the Mississippi. Especially during deer rifle season when a butcher throws deer remains in a field. Ran over a dead dog in the road once because I couldn't swerve and that cost me a muffler and tail pipe. Used to coach HS basketball and on the bus ride the driver pulled over (while going to a game) to pick up a dead raccoon for the pelt. She just grabbed it and threw it in a box up front. Saw a dead cow in the road. They take advantage of faulty fences for grass which is always greener on the other side of the fence. I've also seen a couple of dead cows in pastures during deer rifle season. I remember when I was a teen in suburban Chicago oh so many years ago we put a scarecrow on the side of the road for drivers and our entertainment. A few stopped. Kids would get in trouble now if they did that. Saw a dead ant once in the road. I was jogging and tripped over it, broke two fingers that had to be wired together with a cast on the first morning of vacation (true story -except for the ant part- and published in a class reunion program many years ago - that I didn't go to).
-------------- One step at a time is good walking - Chinese proverb
Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds, for the opportunity to rain on a tent. - D Barry
OK it wasn't something I saw recently and in fact I haven't been in Texas for over a year. But the subject always makes me think of armadillos. One of these three pea brain animals is likely to most often be roadkill but in Texas there would be no debate:
Well around here it's mostly squirrres and raccoons, and possum and skunks. When I was up in Michigan a couple weeks ago it was a lot of dead porucpines on the roads. I had never seen so may before. Also saw one dead black bear along the road. Of course deer will be all over the roads here soon.
If you're ever lost, find an armadillo, follow it. It's on the way to the nearest road to get run over. Some folks think armadillos are born dead on the side of the road. That's not true. Around my place it's skunks. Lots of skunks.
I've seen most of the "usual suspects" this summer, but the most unusual was the cow that had escaped it's pasture and was hit /killed and almost completely blocked the entire county road I take going/coming from one job site.
I haven't seen anything too exciting lately. Last summer I saw three dead black bears that had been hit by cars (different places, different times).
This year, the saddest roadkills have been deer fawns
Travis, there was a time in my life (mid 1980s) that I would stop at good roadkills and remove heads (I collected skulls). I would stop only if there was no chance of getting caught, though. I think it is illegal to mess with wildlife, even if they are dead
-------------- "Ah, Colorado: the one place in America where people wake up earlier on weekends than workdays." ~Mark Obmascik
"In the high country that we love, trails are steep. We climb each mile, breath by breath, and at the threshold of pain, bliss overtakes us. ~Michael Hannon"
. . . Travis, there was a time in my life (mid 1980s) that I would stop at good roadkills and remove heads (I collected skulls). I would stop only if there was no chance of getting caught, though. I think it is illegal to mess with wildlife, even if they are dead
I believe that's true, in Wyoming anyhow, and I suspect in other states also.
I had an older friend (age mid-70's) who did excellent taxidermy work. A few years ago, I stayed in his house a few days to feed and water his horses and dogs while he and his wife were on vacation.
Get this: when you climb his stairs you meet a full-grown mountain lion descending the stairs. At the top is a coiled rattlesnake, head up and ready to strike. Step into a spare bedroom and you are met by a red fox and bobcat, both looking suspiciously alert to your entry.
Standing on various pieces of furniture or waiting in hallways are some of the best specimens of Rocky Mountain wildlife I've ever seen — all meticulously shaped and mounted, and appearing very lifelike.
He was from Colorado and collected most of the specimens there, both from hunters and roadkill (as I understand), which he was evidently able to obtain a permit to collect after duly reporting the discoveries. I'm not sure of the details, but he had several friends in law enforcement, including at least one game warden.
While housesitting and caring for his live animals, I occasionally woke up in the middle of the night, still drousy and half asleep. Just making a late night trip to the bathroom was an adventure.
ROADKILL You've Seen Recently My morbid pastime while driving
What does it say about a guy when the highlight of his day is identifying fresh roadkill? Not to make light of the costs*, it is so much easier to identify the animal before it becomes flattened grotesquely upon the pavement.
Anyhow, I'm thinking different regions of the country might offer a variety — if we were to list the casualties we've noticed recently. Admittedly, positive identification is difficult at highway speeds, but here are some of the species I've seen this past summer:
Mule Deer Whitetailed Deer Pronghorn Striped Skunk Cottontail Rabbit Black-Tailed Prairie Dog American Badger Northern Raccoon North American Porcupine Red Fox Coyote House Cat Red Squirrel Prairie Rattlesnake Wild Turkey
How about you? *To the motoring public, an estimated over $8 billion annually in vehicle damage, as well as hundreds of severe injuries, including human deaths. And in some areas wildlife numbers and migration routes have been disrupted by vehicle collisions — some of which are due to speeding motorists.
Who runs over a cat in a house? WTF Travis??
-------------- The difference between people who think for themselves and those that follow the herd is that thinking people aren't afraid of reality.
I suppose I could have said "domestic cat," (from domus, house) or Felis catus. But considering the way some folks steer their vacuum cleaners, I think there is a large realm of possibilities here, at least from the cat's perspective: Cat escapes deranged vacuum cleaner in the house only to be smashed on highway. So much for "nine lives."
AggieHiker92 Hiking with kids in tow adds a new dimension to the Wonders of Nature
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Posted on: Sep. 26 2012, 1:15 pm
I was driving on the Interstate Highway east of LaCross, WI this past summer (spent a couple of weeks at lovely Fort McCoy) and saw a suicidal deer run across four lanes of high speed heavy traffic like he was on a death wish. His larger buddy, easily a 10-point, was stone-cold dead a few hundred yards back. If that had been in Texas, that rack would have been removed and mounted on somebody's wall.
-------------- "Though I've belted you and flayed you / By the living Gawd that made you / You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din." - Rudyard Kipling
Those guys need to learn a new strategy. Changing directions 20 times as a vehicle approaches hasn't fooled a car yet.
it also doesn't fool bicycles. few mobile animals manage to be road-killed by human-powered-vehicles, yet squirrels manage to get themselves decapitated in bicycle wheels regularly.
Yesterday, a doe, it was a mess. Glad she was picked up before I got off work. Recently, I've seen a beaver, and 2 porcupines. Very rare to see either dead along the road. Squirrels, possum, skunk, a dead cat, what was gross about the cat, was it was taken off the road and laid in the gravel, and two little girls were throwing rocks at it, and messing with it.....GROSS!
You are not alone with your roadkill fascination; I am there too. I can't help but look and try to decipher what it was. Whenever I pass something dead, I think I sure wish mrfoggy would feed that to Stevie, so I don't have to buy so many crickets and goldfish for him.
-------------- "True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost." - Charles Caleb Colton
Not to make light of the costs*, it is so much easier to identify the animal before it becomes flattened grotesquely upon the pavement.
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