Sad drive to work.

Today on the way to work I saw a dead red fox, a dead opossum and a dead rabbit that were all hit by vehicles. This is a very frustrating issue that has no easy solution. First let me start by saying I understand that sometimes animals dart out which makes it hard to notice them and very hard to avoid hitting them but with that aside it just seems so inhumane. We plow over these animals and just keep driving. Sometimes with out even checking to see if they are okay or if we could give them help or just some comfort in their last few minutes. We can not even console or help the ones that are left behind and they are just left to fend for themselves.

I would like you to consider for a moment, what would happen if a child wondered on to the street and met the same situation. Would we try harder to avoid the collision? Would we put up a sign indicating children playing or add a crosswalk? What about lawful repercussions like vehicular manslaughter charges or even hit and run? I know it may sound extreme to add these situations to wildlife but why is it that we take human life so seriously when the population of humans is so much higher than some of the wildlife that is struggling to survive right now? If you look at Ontario’s species at risk list, you will find situations like the blanding’s turtles were they travel long distances of around seven kilometers for a mate/food which is causing them to cross our roadways and then in turn they are meeting their demise under the tires of our cars. Or how about the loggerhead shrike with their young foraging for dead bugs along our roadways. They are many more situations like this but now comes the hard part, what are we to do?

Here are a few ideas that I have stumbled upon throughout my travels.

1. Reduce speed limits and have them more strictly enforced and especially around wildlife heavy zones with migratory paths being considered when choosing these zones.

2. When constructing our roadways, add an animal friendly overpass or underpass? They do have a proven track record however it must come with a heavy financial cost. We saw ones similar to this on Vancouver Island last year for the elk.
http://www.wildlifeandroads.org/decisionguide/2_1_6.cfm

3. They also have something called crosswalks for animals. They use software to detect animals on the road, which then triggers flashing lights which then prompts the drivers to slow down. I got to see this first hand last year in Yellowstone National Park for the buffalo.
http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/StateRoute_260_Elk_Crosswalk.shtml

4. I even found an article that talked about closing the road for a month in both spring and fall due to heavy snake traffic.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EPG/is_n10_v28/ai_16829054/

I don’t think any one of these ideas will completely eliminate the issue of wildlife being struck by vehicles but if done properly it most likely can help protect some of our species of concern.

I really enjoyed the part in the movie Avatar, where a pack of dogs-like beasts were attacking one of indigenous people and when defending themselves one dog was injured. The female indigenous person put it out of it misery but was sad and frustrated with the unnecessary waste of life. To me the movie displayed a lot of respect for life no matter what kind and I think we as humans could learn to adapt a little more of that into our every day lives.

Safe driving!