Top Five Roadkill Sites in North America
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 06.18.08
Last year we learned that a portion of the population actually aim their cars at turtles and snakes; In Canada's roadkill hot spot, the Long Point Causeway, 10,000 animals die each year. Now local groups are raising money to renovate the highway to be animal safe, with barriers and passageways. ::The Star
However, that is only the fourth worst roadkill spot; first is U.S. Highway 27 at Lake Jackson near Tallahassee, Fla. 2,070 turtles are killed there per mile per year. "A turtle now has a 98.86% chance of dying if it enters on to US Highway 27 at Lake Jackson." They are working on engineering designs for a wall and underpass system- The Lake Jackson Ecopassage.
Top 5 Turtle-killing roads:
1. U.S. Highway 27 at Lake Jackson near Tallahassee, Fla.
2. U.S. Highway 441 at Payne's Prairie Preserve State Park near Gainesville, Fla.
3. U.S. Highway 93, Mission Valley, Mont.
4. Long Point, Ont.
5. Cape May, N. J.
Treehugger posts with roadkill content:
Study Proves 2.7% of Drivers Are Stupid Jerks
Recycled Squirrel Decanter
A Year in the Woods Eating Wild Food
Another Paul Rudolph Bites the Dust: Sarasota's Riverview High School
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Water Pipeline Not Wind Power, Real Reason Pickens Can Build Transmission Lines
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Sometimes when I'm driving I fantasize about what kind of punishment those people deserve...
I saved a turtle the other day -- was out on a bike ride and passed a box turtle in the middle of a country road. I stopped and carried him across the road. My good deed for the week.
... That's just pathetic. >:(
Where I work, we have two or three geese crossings, and my co-workers generally bad mouth the geese, but I actually rather enjoy stopping and watching the geese-parents herd their goslings across the street.
They're just like people, just with less pollution and wars.
I saw a turtle on the road near my office last week, but he was less than a foot from the curb so I didn't pull over to help him out (it's a wide street, and the little guy had already gotten 98% of the way across by himself, so I didn't want to steal his thunder).
I do wonder how that turtle got down off the curb without killing himself (a drop twice my height would mess me up something awful). For that matter, I wonder what his plan was once he got to the other side?
Now someone on some major thoroughfare with a lot of dead snakes (maybe even the one in the study!) needs to do the following:
1) get rubber snakes
2) drive thin nails up through them from the bottom to the top
3) leave them around like the researchers did.
I was wondering if bugs on my windshield counts as road kill?