Worldwide, millions of birds & wildlife are killed on roads each year, when a lot of these accidents are preventable. Driving less is obviously good (as is being a wildlife-friendly driver) but the big changes come from better town planning, making use of walkable communities and installing wildlife crossings. Wildlife tends to search for food, water, safety and mates at certain migration times, and won’t deviate from their routes or times, so it’s up to us to help them. Preventing wildlife collisions is not just good for animals, but also helps to save money for councils and insurance companies (deer/human collisions can create extra NHS costs and usually write-off vehicles too).
The new science of ‘road ecology’ is more popular in the US, but is also increasingly being used in Europe, in particular The Netherlands, where wildlife crossings to help all creatures from hedgehogs to birds are used). It’s important to get expert help, to ensure that migration patterns are known, so crossings use the same directions (tunnels & overpasses are often planted with vegetation to provide food & shelter, and blend naturally into the landscape).
Holland has hundreds of wildlife crossings, yet the UK only has a few. The latest in Cheshire includes 9 habitats for great-crested newts, boxes for barn owls, a manmade sett for badgers and 21 ponds for amphibians & replacement bat roosts, along with 80 semi-mature trees & 60,000 saplings. The irony is that one (near Brackley, Northamptonshire) has been designed by the HS2 high-speed rail project (which will kill around 22,000 wildlife per year once built, based on comparisons with similar trains abroad). It’s also torn down England’s second-oldest pear tree and destroyed the habitats of much of our native wildlife (The Barn Owl Trust says the unwanted project is a ‘very expensive way of killing owls’).
In England, the main creatures killed by road traffic are hedgehogs, frogs, badgers, deer and pheasants (these non-native birds have no road sense and are 13 times more likely to die on roads than other birds). Pheasant/vehicle accidents involve 7% of all roadkill (over-bred for the shooting industry) and even contribute to human deaths or serious injury (source: Cardiff & Exeter universities).
take care when driving near wildlife
The best way to help as individuals is simply to drive less. 25% of all road traffic is from lorries delivering food to supermarkets, so by shopping local in walkable communities, we help to reduce the amount of vehicles on our roads. Never toss litter out your car window (this attracts creatures who are then scavenged on if they die). If you eat crisps in your car, use a car trash bag. One farmer had a great idea of printing registration numbers on fast food receipts (so then culprits receive a fine in the post, just like if speeding).
When driving, use full beam at night, but dip your lights if you see wildlife, to avoid startling them. Keep your vehicle in good condition (lights, brakes, windscreens) and stash a simple rescue kit in your car (a cardboard box with punched holes, thick towel with no tassles & a pair of thick gloves). Keep the number of your local wildlife rescue on your phone.
how to help wildlife at risk of road accidents
Another way to help is to become a toad patroller. This is kind of like being a toad lollipop lady, carrying toads in buckets across busy roads, during migration season, so they safely reach the other side. You’ll need a good torch and a good pair of wellies! Hedgehogs are often victims of road accidents, due to being nocturnal creatures that travel up to 2 miles each night, when not hibernating. Creating little ‘holes in fences’ (if you don’t have prey animals or escapee terriers) helps to keep hogs in gardens, away from roads. British Hedgehog Preservation Society has lots of info on how to help our spiky garden friends.
A big risk group are deer (there are around 75,000 accidents a year with countless fatalities and around 20 human deaths). Take great care when driving at dawn and dusk (if you see one deer, there are others) and during autumn rutting. Councils can help by not planting flowers in railings, where deer often get stuck (they eat flowers). You can report traffic accidents (also for wild boar) at Deer Aware so they know hotspots to launch awareness campaigns, and volunteers can download free ‘deer about’ posters. If your vehicle hits a deer, call the police as well as the RSPCA (the latter may take longer to arrive, and trained police marksmen can humanely shoot injured deer, to prevent suffering).
books to learn more about wildlife crossings
- Wildlife Crossings of Hope is a book for children and adults, on how wildlife crossings work and where they are used. This uplifting read focusing on ideas abroad, from the world’s largest wildlife bridge (near Los Angeles) to canopy bridges for Indian monkeys and an elephant underpass in Kenya.
- Wildlife Crossing: Giving Animals the Right of Way asks ‘what happens when the needs of people and nature collide?’ We now have 13 million miles of roads in the world which has led to habitat loss and roadkill, impeding migration routes and isolating wildlife populations. Wildlife overpasses can reconnect landscapes and create environmental harmony, along with keeping wildlife safe from garbage, light, noise & airborne contaminants.
- Wildlife Crossings is an illustrated guide to show how wildlife crossings are helping creatures worldwide including elephant crossings (to avoid these gentle giants being killed for trampling crops), cougar crossings in the USA and Canada’s Banff wildlife corridor (used by tiny insects to wolves, moose, elk and grizzly bears each year). The bridge is not open to the public (just used by staff) to prevent creatures getting spooked by the smell of humans.
