Driving north on the M5 (Exeter -Gloucester) I was surprised by the number of badger? remains on the hard shoulder. Is it actually the badgers that have a death wish, or do the remains of a variety of animals transmogrify to badger lookalikes. The other interesting feature was that the remains almost invariably were about 1m over the white line towards the verge.
One suggestion so far is that they were not road kil, but rogue farmers disposing of illegal kills from the back of a pickup after dark. This is unlikely as I think there is currently a DEFRA? bounty payable, - although this maybe a regional issue?
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>>One suggestion so far is that they were not road kil, but rogue farmers disposing of illegal >>kills
I've also heard this theory - from a farmer!
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Lots do get run over, I've hit a couple. Even at speed they've enough life left in them to crawl to the side of the road. After hitting them I've gone back and had a look for them. Not a long look but enough to know they weren't in the middle of the road.
When I lived in Lincolnshire they were a regular sight dead at the side of the road.
I think the farmer idea is unlikely, they wouldn't go to all that effort no reason to. Who's going to go wondering around fields in the off chance a farmer has killed one and then start proving it was them that killed the badger?
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The farmer theory is fact. From a farmer. Badgers dont die on the side of the road if they are road kill.
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>>Lots do get run over, I've hit a couple.
Did they do much damage? They're big, heavy things. I don't swerve for obstructions generally, but I'd be reluctant to hit one of them, almost as bad as muntjac around here.
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> Did they do much damage? They're big, heavy things. I don't swerve for obstructions generally,
>> but I'd be reluctant to hit one of them
Yeap they do plenty, a recovery job to get back home. Bumper, fog lights, engine under tray, radiator, air con pipes etc. Like hitting a breeze block at speed, it's a real bump when you hit one.
almost as bad as muntjac around
>> here.
Not too much damage when I hit one of those, just a dented wing.
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>> Not too much damage when I hit one of those, just a dented wing.
Not good with wildlife are we.
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>> >> Not too much damage when I hit one of those, just a dented wing.
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>> Not good with wildlife are we.
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Bit like buses really, they just appear out of nowhere.
I'm fine with the local wildlife* though, it's them that go all kamikazi when they see me.
*Along with those mentioned above in car vs wildlife, there's been pigeons flying into the windscreen, C*ckbird pheasants, I'm pretty sure I got a rabbit in works van and possibly more I can't remember, all when I lived in East Anglia. None since I left, not sure what that says though ;-)
Last edited by: sooty123 on Mon 18 Mar 19 at 15:33
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In some parts of the world we protect our wildlife :-)
Weekend before last by beloved and I went out for a meal in Henley and part way along the road from Marlow we came across lots of people with hi-vis jackets along both sides of about a 300 yard stretch of the road.
On the way back they were still there, this time with torches as well and this time we saw the buckets and realised they were the toad patrol.
There is a stretch where the toads traditionally travel across the 4155 between the river Thames and the marshy bits on the other side, and each year the local Rotary Club organises a protection squad to make sure as many as possible make it across rather than get squashed.
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I've seen badgers at the roadside around here on roads flanked by large open fields not the normal territory for badgers (up in the woods maybe), plenty of dead pheasants which fly across from field to field and are hit. Interestingly not noticed hardly any dead urban foxes in a long time which seem to have dropped in numbers round here.
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I stood on a toad in singapore once, big fat and squashy it was, it was dark didnt know it was there
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Definitely a toad not a t*rd?
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Roadkill - bathtub tom
