Car Avoids Something In Road.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Coming home today and a car in front of me swerved to avoid something in road.
I was expecting a large dead animal / brick.
As I got closer I saw what I have seen many a time in the car, a Mole.

It was scurrying along the hedge at tarmac level but it would have a way to go so I passed it and decided to pick it up.
They are wriggly things for sure and I was apprehensive when you first pick up animals on what they will feel like and react.
Failed to hold onto it and had another go and managed with all it four limbs going franticly to put it in the hedge low level only to fall back out a gain, so had another go, quite difficult as they wriggle like mad and I don't want to hurt it.
Must of picked it up four times and eventually it disappeared through the hedge, oh well job done.
About half the size or a large smartie tube.

[Bonefishblues]

That's the third mole in distress tale I've heard this week. They are finding it hard I think, on both levels.

[rjb]

No moles but lots of dead badgers at the moment around here and no sign of the hole between the eyes, so probably road kill.

[foxyrider]

No moles but lots of dead badgers at the moment around here and no sign of the hole between the eyes, so probably road kill.

Not always a bullet. One badger carcass has been dumped near the top of the Snake Pass some distance from any likely set, those responsible must think the rest of us are as stupid as them. Not just badgers of course, quite a few raptors have been dumped on the roads too - one short bit of road had 3 badgers and a brace of raptors (couldn't say what by the time several cars had been over them)

Have seen a lot of dead squirrels and small birds in recent weeks literally falling out of the trees. Small animals are not good at temperature control so are particularly susceptible to heat stroke.

[Mistik-ka]

One badger carcass has been dumped near the top of the Snake Pass some distance from any likely set

I can't speak specifically to British badgers, but it is the case with many mammals —and birds, for that matter— that when the young ones reach the age where they can survive independently they will disperse from their home area. This reduces overcrowding and depletion of resources and avoids in-breeding. Food shortages as a result of the current (recent?) drought in Britain, may have added to the pressure for dispersion.

Young and inexperienced animals in unfamiliar territory are particularly vulnerable at this stage — to predation, competition for territory, starvation, and death on the roads.

[foxyrider]

One badger carcass has been dumped near the top of the Snake Pass some distance from any likely set

I can't speak specifically to British badgers, but it is the case with many mammals —and birds, for that matter— that when the young ones reach the age where they can survive independently they will disperse from their home area. This reduces overcrowding and depletion of resources and avoids in-breeding. Food shortages as a result of the current (recent?) drought in Britain, may have added to the pressure for dispersion.

Young and inexperienced animals in unfamiliar territory are particularly vulnerable at this stage — to predation, competition for territory, starvation, and death on the roads.

I had never seen a dead badger as in road kill until the last few years when farmers started illegally killing them. One stretch of road I travelled on a few weeks ago had about 6 badgers dumped on it within perhaps half a mile. It's a method used by farmers to try to disguise their genocide, enough traffic going over the carcass and no one will check for shot or poison.

[Mistik-ka]

The World Wildlife Fund estimates the number of badgers killed on the roads at 47,000 per year.
https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/wildlife-and-roads-47000-badgers-killed-each-year

[thirdcrank]

Presumably, cyclists are particularly likely to observe birds and animals killed by traffic. I saw my first roadside dead badger earlier this year when I was driving.

It's my impression that I see fewer dead hedgehogs. I've heard it suggested that this may be a Darwinian effect whereby a strain of survivors has learned to run rather than roll up, but I suspect that in reality, the increasing use of slug poisons means there are fewer live badgers.

Bearing in mind the reported widespread rat population, I'm surprised that I only remember having seen one dead rat at the roadside.

[Bonefishblues]

I've been seeing dead badgers on the road as long as I've been a road user. Aiui it's one of the major causes of badger mortality, especially younger badgers. I'd prefer to use the term genocide in its correct context.

[foxyrider]

The World Wildlife Fund estimates the number of badgers killed on the roads at 47,000 per year.
https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/wildlife-and-roads-47000-badgers-killed-each-year

If that were actually true the population in the UK would be about zero.

[Postboxer]

I drove from Manchester to Scarborough and back today and thought there seemed to be more roadkill lying around than usual, mainly various small mammals, a fox and something else fox sized that may have been a fawn.

[Bonefishblues]

The World Wildlife Fund estimates the number of badgers killed on the roads at 47,000 per year.
https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/wildlife-and-roads-47000-badgers-killed-each-year

If that were actually true the population in the UK would be about zero.

Why's that?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-00378-3

[fastpedaller]

I've never seen a live badger - but probably seen 6 dead ones in all my years.

[gbnz]

I had never seen a dead badger as in road kill until the last few years when farmers started illegally killing them....... It's a method used by farmers to try to disguise their genocide, enough traffic going over the carcass and no one will check for shot or poison.

+1. I'd never seen a dead badger on the road until the legal culls were organised by DEFRA 5-6 years back. While my local area is a good 300 miles from the area of culls, suddenly dead badgers were appearing all over the place. And I noted a few with a clear round hole in the forehead.

It's obvious there were some "early" adapters among farmers, as I became accustomed to dead badgers appearing as a matter of routine in two particular areas (Nb. neither area would have supported a high badger population, the bleak moorland/pasture land being unsuited to high population numbers). Though perhaps the quiet roads were merely convenient for dumping carcasses.

[Richard D]

I’m amazed. I’ve seen many, many dead badgers on the UK roads very regularly for as long as I can remember (or at least ass long as I’ve been driving - call it thirty years). More badgers than foxes, certainly - perhaps because the foxes move quicker, or (like cats) when not killed outright by the blow crawl off somewhere else to die. Maybe it’s because I've done a lot of driving on dual carriageways between towns and cities. But it’s certainly not a new phenomenon.