West Sussex has most animal road kills in UK

[BigonaBianchi]

Just hearing this on BBC south....Im not surprised, I see them all the time, lot's of badgers, foxes, pheasants, rabbits, dogs , cats, some deer...such a shame. Too many cars. Nobody seems to care, because it';s them whose doing the killing in their tin cans .

 

[snorri]

I see them all the time, lot's of badgers, foxes, pheasants, rabbits, dogs , cats, some deer... .

At least these are relatively easy to count. Spare a thought for the poor soul who gets sent out to count the midgies on the front of motor vehicles on summer evenings in the Western Isles.
Unless the whole story has just been concocted by BBC South as a spacefiller?

 

[BigonaBianchi]

There are lots of badger road kills around.
The worst road kills I saw were in Missouri...squashed armadillos everywhere..

 

[albion]

It must exclude game birds.

I've seen them piled up stinking high together in their thousands on the sides of some Scottish roads.

 

[slowmotion]

My sister lives a couple of miles from Turners Hill. One night, she was driving home with her family down a quiet lane when a muntjac deer attempted a suicidal crossing out of a hedge a few yards in front. The airbags went off, the dead deer got stuck under the engine compartment, and it cost a few thousand pounds to bash the car back into shape.

Bloody deer....they don't pay Road Tax...

 

[02GF74]

on the other hand, wildlife must be thriving if it is being killed in such large numbers.

 

[slowmotion]

You are General Haig, and ICMFP.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

 

[Tim Hall]

My sister lives a couple of miles from Turners Hill. One night, she was driving home with her family down a quiet lane when a muntjac deer attempted a suicidal crossing out of a hedge a few yards in front. The airbags went off, the dead deer got stuck under the engine compartment, and it cost a few thousand pounds to bash the car back into shape.

Bloody deer....they don't pay Road Tax...

Muntjac? I have often seen roe deer in the woods round there but never muntjac.

I'd go for roe deer too. Mrs. Hall and I were out on the Pino a few years a go, making Good Progress down Back Lane (just west of Turners Hill). It was dusk. Something detached itself from the verge, heading for us. A young roe deer. I apply all the brakes I had, plus a few more. Bambi did a cartoon style scrabbling of feet and veered away at the last minute.

 

[srw]

on the other hand, wildlife must be thriving if it is being killed in such large numbers.

This. I've been told by a naturalist that large amount of road-kill is a good sign of a healthy large animal population*. Likewise it's a truism that a healthy population of magpies is a good sign that small birds are thriving.

*Although I suspect that these days some of the badger "road-kill" has met its end at the point of a shotgun and been dumped.

 

[avalon]

Same here. It's very rare for me to go out on a ride and not see fresh road kill. I have also been the cause of death for a Parrot that flew into the spokes of my front wheel. It's something I felt quite bad about as I consider bicycles to be an environmentally and all living thing friendly form of transport.