March 24th, 2006
ribbon of death
Last week, I photographed a road-killed Muskrat — first of the many birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles which I’ll see DOR (dead on road) between now and late autumn. That’s not to say that animals aren’t killed year-round, but spring can be bad for several reasons. Female turtles are frequently crushed while crossing roads to reach suitable habitat for egg-laying. Frogs are squashed, often en masse, while moving from winter to summer habitats which are often divided by roadways. Birds are struck while flying low across highways in pursuit of insects, or while trying to scavenge previously road-killed creatures. Mammals are often run down as they begin actively foraging about, particularly after dark.
A couple of years ago, I began photographing road-killed birds, mammals and herps, and put some of the images up online in a gallery entitled Ribbon of Death. Another naturalist also contributed a few of his photos to add to the collection. Should you decide to visit and take a look around, be forewarned that some of the images are (as would be expected), quite graphic. My reason for putting the gallery up was a response to learning of yet another proposal for yet another road through yet another wetland in this region - a wetland to be chopped through in such a way as the one where the photo of a road-killed Bittern (see thumbnail image) was taken. I set the gallery up as a means of making the public more aware of the impact which roads have on wildlife. It seems that many people are rather ignorant of the damage that is done when forests or wetlands are hacked through by new roadways. Many seem unaware (or in some form of denial) of the huge numbers of animals killed on roadways, often in a single day or night. It seems that most people barreling along in their cars and trucks do the best they can to avoid looking at road-killed animals. I wonder if people really had to look at the animals that are killed while trying to exist in fragmented habitats — might they then begin to question the necessity of more and more roads. Might they then slow down and take greater care while driving through natural areas that are home to wildlife. I can hope, can’t I?
What can each of us do to try to mitigate the impact of roads on wildlife?
* Become aware of wildlife corridors and exercise caution while driving through them. Many corridors follow ravines or creeks, or exist between areas of wetland which have been cut through by roadways. Sites of frequent road-kills are often at corridors, so pay particular attention while driving through areas where you have seen dead animals in the past.
* Learn more about the habits of wildlife so that you can avoid impacts. For example, large movements of frogs generally occur on rainy evenings in spring and fall. Dozens to hundreds of frogs may be crushed by traffic during mass movements. Try to avoid travel on peak nights. Similarly, become aware of and slow down along sections of roadways where female turtles attempt cross to access suitable nest habitat.
* Become informed and involved when new roads are being proposed in your region. Ensure that proper environmental impact studies are carried out at the earliest planning stage of proposed projects. In other words, don’t wait until it’s too late to make changes to plans or lobby for re-routes.
* Encourage others to become more aware of the impact of roads on wildlife. While it may not be possible to halt the relentless fragmentation of wildlife habitats, the least we can do is to take greater care to minimize the extent of the damage from existing roadways.
Tags: wildlife habitat fragmentation, transportation ecology, roadkilled animals, Ribbon of Death
March 25th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
Bev,
This is a wonderful post. Wildlife corridors are something I’ve been thinking of a lot lately. I’ve been fascinated, as I’ve constructed a map of my county (Oglethorpe, in northeast Georgia) to see that I really don’t have to include elevation contours - the roads define the high points and the lower elevations follow the creeks and small rivers. Not always, but enough to see at a glance what the contours must be.
And therefore, at least where we are, the wildlife corridors, which are fortunately in most places away from the roads.
There’s been any number of instances coming home from work late at night that I’ve experienced frog crossings. It’s delicate work trying to move gently through them, especially when you have a suckmobile on your tail that has no idea that there’s a movement of amphibians afoot. I’ve probably upped the blood pressure on a number of those suckers.
March 25th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Wayne - You’re very lucky to have roads that don’t tend to cross many creeks and rivers. In our region, there are many lakes and rivers, often with roads roughly following the shorelines. Often, they pass over creeks that empty into the larger bodies of water, or they pass close enough to the shores that frogs and turtles are forced to make their way across highways to reach those areas where they overwinter, spend summer, or lay eggs. In the higher country up on the Shield, it’s somewhat the same story, but complicated by many high ridges with roads passing through rock-cuts. Near Charleston Lake, there’s a section of road like this where we see many DOR snakes, turtles and other creatures. Consequently, it’s also an area where Turkey Vultures like to scavenge. However, I think the worst areas are those with wetlands where roads have been constructed — probably with the thinking that it’s low-value property, so why not put it to “good use”. Sections of roads through wetlands are absolute killing fields for turtles and frogs, but also for birds and many mammals such as Beaver, Muskrat and River Otter. Although there appears to be a growing awareness that wildlife have to be considered during the road-planning process, I think we’re still seeing too many roads constructed without due consideration to their impact. If there’s one bright spot in all of the above, it’s that there’s a growing interest in “transportation ecology” research, so perhaps we’ll see some good coming out of that (the sooner, the better).
March 27th, 2006 at 5:41 am
Great post and wonderful photograph. How sad to see a road-killed bittern. It’s so hard to see one alive so clearly.
March 27th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Thanks, Carel. Yes, it was sad to see a road-killed bittern. Unfortunately, it’s a sad truth that the closest that I have been to a good many wild birds and mammals has been when I’ve stopped to photograph those that were dead on the road — as when I photographed a road-killed Great Gray Owl about a year ago. In that case, I photographed the owl and submitted the image to someone doing research on GGO populations and mortality in Ontario, so at least the info was put to good use. - bev
March 27th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
Living out here beyond the city, I encounter this every time I’m on the road. I try, but it’s not always possible or safe to avoid killing things. It always feels as if I, also, have been hit.
Have you read “Apologia” by Barry Lopez? I’ve only read the short essay (on which the based) in “About this life” and that’s enough to suggest the book is well worth reading (although, anything by Lopez is worth checking out).
Thanks for this post, Bev. It’s an issue that few people seem willing to think about, particularly here in Aotearoa/NZ, where most of the roadkills are considered pests or are disregarded as being so common it doesn’t matter. We even have one otherwise excellent manufacturer of outdoor equipment who, as a marketing ploy, encourages people to try to road-kill possums. (Yes, possums are a huge problem, and I’m sure it’s tongue-in-cheek, but … I don’t like it.) The one real exception is where roads pass through areas of kiwi habitat; there, you’ll sometimes see road signs warning motorists to take care (ha! — as if it makes any difference to how most people drive).
March 28th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Pete - No, I haven’t read “Apologia”, but just looked it up and read a couple of pages from the essay and it looks very interesting. I shall have to try to get a copy. The excerpt which I read certainly speaks to me as one who has also stopped many times to photograph and write notes about road-killed wildlife.
Interesting about your comments concerning the attitude towards road-killed wildlife. There’s a bit of that here in some circles — with some people actually seeming to go out of their way to kill certain animals such as turtles and snakes. It’s truly bizarre. Fortunately, that thinking seems less common now. In fact, I occasionally see people moving turtles off of roads when they are found crossing in perilous locations — something that I also do when I see the need (it’s usually best not to interfere unless the situation is just too dangerous). Also, in this region, there are quite a few “turtle crossing” signs along sections of highway, and signs alerting people to watch out for snakes on roads in several parks. Hopefully the growing awareness will translate into lower wildlife mortality. However, the real solution is to try to preserve wildlife corridors and keep roads out of sensitive areas. I’m less optimistic about that likelihood.
October 17th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
As John A Livingston writes in Rogue Primate:
“‘Development’ represents the crushing and scarification of forests, the mutilation and corruption of waterways, the savaging and toxification of the living soils.”
and
“The ‘development’ ideologues do not hear the screaming of the buttressed trees or the wailing of the rivers or the weeping of the soils. They do not hear the sentient agony and the anguish of the non-human multitudes - torn, shredded, crushed, incinerated, choked, dispossessed.”
October 18th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Rasheeds - Thanks for posting the Livingston passages.