Archive
MITIGATING ROADKILL
28/10/2022
Sorry this is a bit gruesome but I hope it is hard-hitting (no pun intended). Most of the sites we manage have estate roads to serve the housing and facilities around our managed Public Open Space. Whilst road traffic is generally lighter than on the main road network, and speeds are (or should be) slower, there is still a significant amount of commuter, visitor and delivery traffic, which is a danger to wildlife, as this frog discovered.
We try to get planners to introduce designs that help to reduce risks to wildlife. This includes avoiding roads between known migration and movement routes such as between an amphibian breeding pond and their foraging/hibernation sites, across known mammal runs used by foxes, badgers, deer, hedgehogs and others. It also helps not to place roads where there are times when many insects are there, such as swarming mayflies near ponds and streams; this is not only to reduce insect mortality but also that of their predators. Unfortunately, such measures are not always practical or even recognised as desirable.
Though I stress I have not made a controlled scientific study, my casual observation of roadkills suggests that the most vulnerable species are badgers, hedgehogs, foxes, deer, squirrels, frogs, toads, slow-worms and barred grass snakes. Birds do get hit, but I think less frequently. Interestingly, bats seem to be very good at avoiding traffic. Domestic cats and dogs, though, are very vulnerable, to the great distress of their owners. Flying invertebrates are killed in their millions by cars and it is difficult to stop that, but driving slowly, especially in warm weather, does help.
So what can local residents, delivery drivers and other citizens do? Above all, drive slowly and keep you eyes peeled for animals that may be on or at the side of the road trying to cross. Be especially alert in wooded areas, along habitat boundaries, near ponds and water courses or where there was once an old hedge that has been cut through by the road. If you know of a particular danger spot, it may well be that there is already a wildlife group that has erected barriers to deter amphibians, for example, from crossing between their pond and terrestrial habitat. Talk to the local Wildlife Trust and see if you can assist. For example, volunteers move thousands of toads to safety by collecting them at the side of the road where they are halted by a barrier, and moving them safely to the other side.
Betts Ecology staff are alert to the problems of wildlife death and injury on roads. There are measures that we can take to help mitigate the problem in danger spots, so please let us know if you notice a particular area where many animals are being killed on a site we manage and we will investigate
© Betts Ecology
