If you drive around the country you will always see a bit of road kill. It’s inevitable.
Yesterday, however, it was a bit over the top. Either the level of road kill has increased significantly or the route I took was more susceptible to it than other routes.
I think I must have seen every imaginable form of road kill during my drive from Carlow to Midleton yesterday morning.
Michele Neylon :: Pensieri
Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts
National parks and wildlife are running a national survey to find the roadkill blackspots. You should enter your sightings.
http://www.biology.ie/home.php?m=npws
Alan
How long has that survey been running?
Michele
About 4 months.
I like the way you say “a bit of road kill“.
Actually the second you leave the main roads and you are driving on a R*** type road, you are in danger.
Most of them are so tight that you need to pull over to let the incoming trafic go by, or at least drive as much to the left as posible, getting your car scratch by the road-side trees.
Louie
What are you talking about?
I’m talking about dead animals on the side of the road
Michele
The road kill survey was set up to find out where animals are being killed on Irish roads. It started the last week of January 2007. 7 months to date. It is hoped that ‘black spots’ where animals are killed will be looked at by the National Roads Authority, and that perhaps tunnels or overpasses can be constructed for them. The idea is to try and stop the incidental killing of what are know as Annex IV species. Basically that means animals that under threat throughout Europe.
The survey is running on http://www.biology.ie. Have a look and add in any kills you see. The site is very impressive, thanks to the skills of the Spoiltchild team.
Thanks boys.
Paul.
Paul
Have the NRA made any promises with regard to providing tunnels etc., or is that more aspirational?
Michele
Well Michele, it seems that the EU are enforcing this, so I reckon that if it is not done, then Ireland will be fined for breaking another EU Environment directive. On the new roads being constructed at the moment there is provision made for animals to cross. Many of these have been improved as a result of road kill surveys such as the one running on Biology.ie. Also, apart from the problems of crossing the roads, animals can be helped move into new areas that are blocked by the road by (say) directing them along the bank of a river. In some cases otters are being helped move under small local bridges over streams by building shelves along the inside of the bridge. This encourages them to avoid using the road.
There are other issues involved in the road kill survey also. For example, it has already shown the distribution pattern of some mammals has changed over the years. This redistribution may be due to the new roads carving up the country into slices that animals cannot cross; its also probably due to houses and factories being built on their habitats. Woodland habitats are being removed for the construction of houses all over the country. Also, many people building houses in the countryside have a tendency to remove the old hedgerow around the building site and replace it with a bare fence. The animals that lived their lives in the hedgerow have to move. The problems seem to go on and on, but with a little more awareness (and possible less effort!) this can be avoided.
I better stop there.
Paul
Paul
Thanks for all the information. It’s a truly fascinating subject.
It’s great to see that someone is taking an interest
Michele