To think most people don't care about wildlife on country roads?

[BastardGoDarkly]

I know sometimes its completely unavoidable, but I've lived in the country for 9 years now, on very twisty, one car roads.

I've never hit anything, not once, so why are there so many casualties? Have I just been really lucky? (there's been many a close call) or do most people not care about pigeons/rabbits/pheasants?

I was nearly run down by someone swerving to avoid hitting a rabbit.

It's not about caring or not. It's pure chance

I was genuinely wondering if I'd just been lucky

Yes, honestly you have. Unfortunately most animals have no road sense, especially pheasants and rabbits.

I've run over 3 animals in 30 years of driving. A cat, a couple of years ago which just ran straight out in front of my car - broad daylight, straight road, I was doing less than 30 but absolutely nothing I could do to avoid it. (I stopped, moved him out of the road so the poor thing didn't get mangled and eventually found the owners). The other two were by some freak both on the same evening - a rabbit and then a bit later a duck of all things. I arrived home in floods of tears, DH thought one of my family must have died. Thats how random it is though.

Pheasants are stupid birds - seem to like flying into the side of cars/ running into back wheels.

Badgers - well some are "roadkill" and dead when they find their way onto the road with a bullet somewhere.

Pigeons and pheasants are dense things - they trash radiators so best to avoid hitting them!

One that got away was a pheasant who decided to take a stroll across the road in front of me. Fortunately I wasn't going at a great speed and no traffic behind so was able to stop and watch it taking its time to cross. Just as it got past the front of my car and I went into first gear it stopped. Then decided, no, he preferred the other side of the road better and began wadding back again

This is in direct contrast to my friend's brother who would chase them with his car and got his comeuppance when he went too far and the car ended up in a deep ditch

DH hit a deer in the early hours of the morning - a proper big one , not a muntjac . It crossed the road in front of him , saw its own shadow and turned back . He had nowhere to go , so hit it . Smashed the front of the car to pieces . Total write off , but he was lucky . Two people had died that week on the same road , when they'd swerved to avoid them and hit a tree instead .

I had one leap out of a ditch and into the side of my car taking out the front wing , passenger door and bumper. 3 months later , a fox ran out and took out my brand new bumper . Nothing I could do about any of it .

I think the animal that I see dead most often on the rural roads near me are by far badgers. However, from the comments on this thread it doesn't seem like they are hit that regularly compared to other animals. I know this is a very small portion of the population, but I really do hope it isn't because they are being hunted

I live really rurally and to my knowledge haven't hit anything yet; sheer luck! However, if I do, it won't be through not caring about animals - I adore seeing them all on my drive to work (sometimes it feels like the scene in Sleeping Beauty where all the animals come to hear her sing!). On my 20 min journey yesterday I saw two dead deer, a handful of badgers and a gazillion pheasants. It's often more dangerous to slam on the brakes and usually there's nowhere to swerve to on country roads.

Pheasants are one of my absolute favourite things in the world but they are spectacularly stupid and I am convinced they just hang around waiting for cars to come before dawdling into the road. It's only a matter of time I am the car who sends them to pheasant heaven! I also always get stuck in "traffic" because there's a group of a dozen of these beauts milling around

I've hit a cat and a bird. No chance of reacting or stopping due to road conditions. Dreadful.

Maybe you have a noisy car, and wildlife avoids you?

Roads around here are often strewn with dead pheasants the odd rabbit or two and rarely a deer. Pheasants are as thick as pigshit and run around like headless chickens. It's not always safe to stop or swerve.

Nobody wants to hit them they can do plenty damage to the car and a deer can wreck it but rather them than another car or a tree.

Pheasants do indeed win the most stupid creature contest, pipping pigeons at the post.

Peacocks !? Thank fuck they're not strutting around here, they're be toast!

I think I've decided people don't care enough to go as slow as I do, and some bastards murder badgers, which I'd never considered, and makes me really sad.

Yeah, I drive a lot rurally and presume most of the badgers I see have been shot.

You've been lucky. You may not be so lucky tomorrow.

I lived in the countryside for 28+ years without hitting anything then one night, on my way to work, I hit a badger. It was awful, I never wanted to hit any animal but all of a sudden there was a badger on the verge which ran straight in front of my car, swerving would probably put me into a field and it all happened so quickly. I can assure you, hitting the bager had nothing to do with not respecting wildlife. Nothing at all.

The roads round here are pretty straight for long strrtches. Cars can't be going slow just in case some kamikaze pheasant runs out! It's got nothing to do with not caring its about not putting yourself or others in danger over a random bird or rabbit.

I don't particularly care about wildlife, in that I am not an animal person and not really bothered if they are there or not . But that doesn't automatically mean I go out on a mission to get them! I've never hit an animal and would go to every length to avoid hitting one if it ran out in front of me. Unless of course avoiding them would cause injury to any humans and then sorry, I'll put the humans first.

I think I've decided people don't care enough to go as slow as I do

You go everywhere at

I do see a lot of roadkill - badgers

I read elsewhere that a lot of dead badgers by roads aren't roadkill but dumped there by the despicable people who engage in badger baiting.

yh OP, its sad. Most country roads are driven by maniacs. Why do they even bother having "deer" signs, people still speed, regardless.

People say "it can't be helped" but I expect 80% of them were speeding. Someone I know killed a deer (arsehole) but he drives at 70 mph everywhere.

Going a bit slower and paying close attention to the sides of the road makes a MASSIVE difference on windy country roads. Also, I always leave a substantial distance between myself and the driver ahead of me, enough of a distance so that I could stop if the person in front of me had to do an emergency stop. I pull over and let tailgaters pass me.

You can't avoid all wildlife on the road, but you can hugely decrease the number of roadkills by driving carefully and considerately. These animals share the land we live on, and we give them a hard enough time, what with destroying their habitats, spreading pesticides around, destroying local biodiversity, and messing with the climate.

You have been lucky. I've hit a couple of rabbits over the years, nothing I could do about it. Exdh hit a badger, it did hundreds of pounds worth of damage to the front of the car the night before we were part exing it for a new one!!

When I went to the Scottish Highlands on holiday with my family about 10 years ago,my heart was in my mouth every time we drove along the winding country roads,especially at night,when I could see the eyes of wild deer on the grass verges, glowing in the reflection of the headlights. Thankfully,we didn't hit anything while we were there,although we did have to practically stop a few times and wait for grouse or pheasants to move out of the way. They are so dopey! But one upsetting incident sticks in my mind regarding deer. One afternoon,we drove past a car that had pulled up at the roadside. A man was sitting next to what looked like a fully-grown deer,lying dead or injured in the road. The man was crying because he had hit it. That upset me for the rest of the holiday.

Dh wasn't speeding, in actual fact he was slowing as we were approaching a dangerous bend. The rabbit turned and ran back under the car. Nothing he could have done.

Pheasants have missed me by inches, nothing to do with my speed as they approach from the side.

A pheasant literally walked into my car while I was going 50mph last week- I had no time to do anything about it as it came from under a bush.

If I could have stopped I would have