The carnage on our roads

[marcus]

im not talking abou the terrible road toll in australia , which is terribly high.

im talking about the animals on our roads.

i have just returned from a 3500km (2000 mile) road trip for my christmas break and I have to say , what do we have to do to protect our wildlife on our roads ??

while driving at about 4.30am i came a cross a dead kangaroo on the road (near the town of Young) it had been hit by a truck and it was HUGE.

it covered me entire lane of traffic and if i had of hit it i would be lucky to be here right now typing this as it would have destroyed my humble family car.

now seeing me (all 70 kg's of me) at 4.30am in the morning on a dark road trying to drag a dead roo off the road which probably wieghed over 125 kg's would have been a sight.

thanksfully a truck driver stopped and helped me otherwise someone would have hit it and been seriously hurt.

Ok so on the road again everything was fine until the sun came up and the birds came out for breakfast.

i hit about 7 birds who just flew straight into my car and when im doing 60 miles an hour Im dont have any chance to miss them.
these birds were crazy they looked like they were actually playing chicken with their mates , seeing who could fly the closest to my car.

they ranged from your everyday sparrow , to beautifull rosella's and even galah's and cockatoo's , it was just crazy stuff.

so day 1 ended with the count of 5 birds dead (that i alone hit) and about 15 - 20 dead kangaroo's that i didnt hit.

day 2 and the birds stated again and i hit a few more , i did notice it was only early morning they were like that , get around 10 or 11 am and they were not a problem.

crossed the new south wales border into queensland near goondiwindi and the roo's came out , i nearly hit about 4 of them bouncing all over the road but sadly eventually i was destined to get one.

there was 2 of them standing next to the road , i slowed down to about 70kph (40 mph) and moved into the other lane (straight road no traffic coming) one took off into the bush but the other decided to hop along the road and when i finally got beside him he turned into my path , he hit the side of my car and fell over where i sadly ran him over with my rear wheels.

Holden Commodore : 1
kangaroo's : 0

thankfully for me i didnt hit him front on and damge my radiator , because I was in the middle of nowhere and had no service on my mobile.

but it was simply crazy , dodging birds , kangaroo's even Emu's that ventured onto the roads (not to mention those bloody kane toads) .

Ive never seen such carnage on our roads before and ive travelled all my life.

before i left I purchased some whislte things to put on my car which let off a noise that scares the animals away , guess what , That didnt work !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

maybe it attracted them ??????

what can we do to save out wildlife from being slaughtered on our roads ????

its not practicle to fence the entire roadways of australia and Roo's can jump pretty high.

But this was just simply terrible to see the amount of animals that had been hit cars or trucks and there is simply nothing a driver can do without crashing themsleves ????

[Morris 1100]

1) It is because of the drought. The animals are moving around following what feed they can find.
2) It is because of all the fools (poms) that say you can't kill kangaroos.

[Morris 1100]

Originally Posted by marcus

before i left I purchased some whislte things to put on my car which let off a noise that scares the animals away , guess what , That didnt work !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

maybe it attracted them ??????

You didn't fit them backwards did you?

[marcus]

LOL , No i didnt fit them backwards , they simply dont work , waste of $7 if I ever saw it

as for not being able to kill Roo's , arent they culling them up north because they are almost in plague proportions ???

Or at least they were at one stage ?

[bartman71]

reminds me a bit like something that happened to me a few years ago.

mum and dad live over the road from the gorge reserve in Launceston. i came home late one night in my RX7. dodgeing a couple of roos on the way down the street. i pulled up out the front got out and then heard a loud thud as my car shook. stupid roo came around the side of the house straight into the side of my car leaving a huge dent in the Quater panel.

[mtpanorama]

The best one that i saw was a police car that hit an emu at 160km/h. There were a couple of scratches on the bumper bar, the bonet had a small dent in it. But the roof was pushed back to just above the front edge of the back seat.

[Mathias]

Someone did a scientific study in the UK a few years ago about blackbirds being hit by cars. Apparently young blackbirds, in the first few weeks after leaving the nest, usually fly in short bursts between 3 and 6 feet off the ground. In urban areas now, the study shows that young blackbirds now fly well above 6 feet, whereas their rural cousins still fly lower. The scientists drew the conclusion that in the last 10 or 20 years, the genetic disposition to fly at less than 6 feet has been wiped out of the blackbird gene pool as a result of the number of young birds killed by collisions with cars.

Darwinian evolution in motion, folks!

[Morris 1100]

We just have to get the roos to fly a bit higher!

[KPC]

Pheasants... horizontal Lemmings.

[neil_davidson2]

Originally Posted by KPC

Pheasants... horizontal Lemmings.

Never understood why the bloody things always decide to avoid an oncoming vehicle by trying to casually stroll out of the way - use your bloody wings for crying out loud!