To be upset by the amount of road kill on country roads?

[superstarheartbreaker]

I am a country girl. Today we drove to Bristol and the sat in front mowed down a beautiful buzzard ( not a clean kill). We were all v. Upset.
Not to mention about 5 squashed badgers and 3 foxes.

I'm not suggesting we start building hedgehog bypasses but why so much road kill this month?

[superstarheartbreaker]

Car in front even

[JulyKit]

I think it's been a bumper year for everything (not just spiders!) so there's more wildlife to be killed.
Yes, it can look quite distressing.
For kites, though, generally good news, I'd have thought.

[JulyKit]

I mean 'it can be quite distressing to look at'.

[JulyKit]

Oh, and a bumper year because the summer was so warm and September so dry and mild. So there's an abundance of many wild things.

[Pipbin]

A suspicious person would also suggest that some of the badgers might also be suffering from a shotgun wound and then put on the road to look like road kil.

[Igotafreegoattoo]

Pipbin....I think most people would just bury the badger where they shot it and not bother carrying it to a road and artfully arranging it to look like road kill

[superstarheartbreaker]

The buzzard this owning was very distressing.poor thing. I agree with bumper year though.

[JulyKit]

Hmm... 'artful arrangement' or chucking out of window as driving along...?

[FyreFly]

It's good for scavengers and carrion. Circle of Life and all that...

[Bartlebee]

I hate it too. We live in a rural area and our main road is often one dead thing after another. There was a dead muntjac near our house last week.

[scurryfunge]

I live in a rural area and often have badgers wandering in the middle of the lane not in a hurry to move. I give them time to move but on a fast road drivers are less likely to brake for fear of losing control of the vehicle. It's the same with hares, rabbits and foxes. How can you justify heavy braking just to save them getting hit? Just missed a beautiful barn owl swooping in front of my windscreen tonight on the way home from work. Would have been gutted if I'd have hit it.

[juneybean]

Yes I have noticed it a lot more in the past year, not sure why but it is very upsetting and sometimes I hate driving in case I manage to hit something.

[ravenAK]

Someone I know who knows about these things once told me that plentiful roadkill is actually a good sign, as it means that the species concerned are actually doing rather well in that area.

I've always found that a comforting thought, but must admit to not knowing if that's really how it works!

[TooMuchCantBreath]

Definitely the season where badgers suddenly decide to get themselves shot and end conveniently on the edge of a fast road seem to wander into the road a lot.

[Igotafreegoattoo]

No badgers here. Lots of foxes, cats and hedhehogs.

[HavanaSlife]

But why would anyone bother to move a badger theyve shot?

[TooMuchCantBreath]

Because it's illegal to shoot them.

[JollyGolightly]

It's always worse at the times of year when commuting times coincide with comings and goings for nocturnal animals.

[Jellykat]

Because it's still illegal to shoot a badger Havana, unless you've got a specific licence (i.e in a cull area)

[Stratter5]

I'm with Pipbin on the suspicious badger corpses. It's very noticeable round here that the badgers appear to be engaging in a mass suicide every coupe of weeks. That, or they are stupid enough to be holding night time sponsored walks along the middle of a certain road. There's never one dead badger, if you see one dead by the road, you can guarantee there will be at least three or four more dead within a five mile stretch.

I've been convinced for quite a while now that they are being shot and dumped.

[AlpacaLypse]

I thought it was mostly foxes that were mysteriously shot then dumped to make them look like roadkill? Badgers (by and large) don't tend to be responsible for mass killings of poultry or lambs - the usual reason that farming folk have to get rid of predators.

[TooMuchCantBreath]

Badgers are responsible for the spread of tb in cattle though, tends to make them unpopular with farmers.

[superstarheartbreaker]

Hmm intetesting about badgers. I agree as a driver that its hard to know what to do. I oncw met a guy who swerved when he saw a rabbit. He had such a bad crash that he wont go in a car again.

[Catswiththumbs]

Of course badgers are a threat to livestock- lambs more than poultry admittedly.

[londonrach]

Toomuch as some who grow up in somerset tb is called bovin tb as the evidence which the gov ignores that the badgers get tb from the cows. Culling the badgers actually makes the spread of tb worse.

Reason why loads of road kill badgers is that they not frightened by anything and will amble along the lane and take on cars. We used to have one that had a route across the gardens and fields. Dad put a fence up without realising his route. Next night badger just took out the solid wood fence at the bottom. Nothing stops them apart from a man with a gun. Dad made a badger hole under the fence after that....

Yes agree lots more road kill at the moment. Why is it the birds and deers that upset me the most...