England has many birds and wildlife killed or injured on roads each year. A fifth of all badgers are killed in road accidents (especially in spring with emerging cubs and autumn for mating). Of course walkable communities would be nice, but until then, here are some useful tips and resources.
Be a Wildlife-Friendly Driver
- Keep to speed limits. Be alert for wildlife, especially at dawn and dusk.
- Use full beam at night (dip lights, if you see wildlife, to avoid startling).
- Keep your lights, brakes and windscreens in good condition.
- Use a car trash bag to avoid dropping litter out the window. This stops scavengers (and animals that scavenge on dead animals).
- One farmer wants fast food restaurants to print vehicle registrations on receipts. So if someone drops litter, they get a fine in the post, just like for speeding.
- A simple car rescue kit can be a cardboard box with punched air-holes, thick gloves and a thick towel (no tassles). Keep the number of your local wildlife rescue on your phone.
Force Birds to Fly Higher (to avoid roads)
Owls can be helped by forcing low-flying birds to fly higher (also helps bats). Plant high hedges of close-spaced trees next to road surfaces on both sides (or plant trees 3-4 metres back from road edge). Don’t place nest boxes within 1km of major roads, have continuous screens on both sides. Bird diverters can help swans avoid pylons.
Become a Toad Lollipop Lady!
Become a toad patroller (volunteers take migrating toads to the other side of the road, during breeding season). Also read how to provide habitats for frogs (also frequently killed on roads, due to lack of ponds).
Please Don’t Hunt Game Birds
Pheasants are non-native birds with no road sense, and 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 also contribute to human deaths or serious injury.
Hedgehog Highways (to avoid road accidents)
Many hedgehogs are killed on roads, as they travel 2 miles each night to find food. As many gardens are fenced, create ‘hedgehog highways’ (gaps so hogs can travel through gardens at night, away from roads).
If you have prey animals (rabbits) or escapee terriers, you could seal up holes in the day when hogs are sleeping).
The Wildlife Community’s Hedgehog Crossing is made from recycled plastic, and comes pre-drilled with holes and instructions. Check gaps regularly, for debris and overgrown plants.
Preventing Car Collisions with Deer
Each year, the UK has around 75,000 deer/car collisions, with 20 human deaths too. Take care driving at dawn and dusk (if you see one deer, there are others nearby), be especially vigilant in autumn during rutting season.
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. Download free ‘Deer About’ posters.
If your vehicle hits a deer, call the RSPCA. But also the police (trained marksmen can often arrive quicker, and humane shoot suffering deer).
How Wildlife Crossings Can Save Animals
Creating walkable communities where cars are not needed is the best idea. But wildlife crossings (used far more in The Netherlands) help to keep creatures safe, by giving them alternative routes like bridges or tunnels.
In North America, wildlife crossings are used extensively to help creatures like mountain lions in California to safely cross roads. ‘Road ecology’ is an emerging importance science. That could save billions of animals worldwide, and actually costs less than the cost of cleaning up roadkill.
- Wildlife Crossings of Hope explains how wildlife crossings work, and how they are used. This uplifting book focuses on ideas abroad, from the world’s largest wildlife bridge (near LA0, canopy bridges for monkeys (India) and an elephant underpass (Kenya).
- Wildlife Crossing: Giving Animals the Right of Way asks how to stop wildlife being killed on the world’s 13 million miles of roads. Wildlife overpasses can reconnect landscapes and create environmental harmony, and keep wildlife safe from light, noise and litter.
- Wildlife Crossings shows how elephant crossings are helping these gentle giants from being killed (for trampling crops), and also profiles cougar crossings (USA) and Canada’s Banff Wildlife Corridor (used by tiny insects to wolves, moose, elk and grizzly bears).
Holland has hundreds of wildlife crossings, yet England only has a few. One in Cheshire has 9 habitats for great-crested newts, boxes for barn owls, a manmade sett for badgers and 21 ponds for amphibians & replacement bat roosts, 80 semi-mature trees & 60,000 saplings.
The irony is that one wildlife crossing (near Brackley, Northamptonshire) has been designed by HS2 high-speed rail project (which will kill around 22,000 wildlife per year once built, based on comparisons with similar trains abroad).
The World’s Largest Wildlife Crossing (LA)
In Los Angeles, the world’s largest wildlife crossing is due to open in 2026. A wildlife crossing is built to follow natural migration patterns of wildlife, and is usually covered with vegetation to fit in with the landscape.
This offers bridges or tunnels (or both) so local creatures can go about their daily lives, free from the hazards of vehicles.
Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing has been created by a private/public partnership, with the government and public jointly providing funding.
The structure will cross 10 lanes of freeway (motorway) to help local wildlife including deer, bobcats, coyotes, black bears, mountain lions, crocodile lizards and gopher snakes, so they can connect between the Santa Monica mountains and Simi Hills, to find food and mates.
After New York and Chicago, Los Angeles is the USA’s largest city, and by far the largest city in the state of California. Of course it’s recently been in the news, due to the tragic (and often preventable) wildfires, which have affected so many humans and other beings.
Although this area is prone to natural wildfires and earthquakes, scientists all agree that they have been made worse by climate change. Even Hollywood legends have to play by nature’s rules (earthquakes risks means most ‘homes in the hills’ are no more than 2 stories high).
