Fall Equals Busy Roadways for Wildlife
With the colder nights creeping in, our wild neighbors are gearing up to bunker down for the oncoming colder season. Those who cannot migrate must be able to endure, or sleep through, the long Canadian winter. This means many species are on the move during the fall; looking for nutritious foods to fatten up or cache, and finding suitable habitat to safely overwinter. This time of year is when we start to see a high number of hit by car animals in need of care at the Kawartha Wildlife Centre. There are a number of reasons wild animals find themselves in roads, many of them are circumstances we can work to improve or help mitigate.
Throwing food or waste from car windows or near roads and trails not only attracts scavengers close to the side of the road, but also their predators, leaving all vulnerable to vehicle strikes. Owls are frequent patients in the fall and winter; finding mice at a roadside takes less effort than hunting for them in a field. Unfortunately, they suffer head trauma and broken bones when they fly into or are hit by oncoming vehicles.
Porcupines are often enjoying the road salt or looking for new foraging spots, they are slow moving by nature and do not typically run when threatened. Instead, they try to defend themselves with their quills, which are no match for a moving vehicle.
Dusk and dawn are active times for most wildlife; poor lighting offers cover from many threats and predators. Unfortunately, it can also make visibility a challenge, so spotting wildlife on or beside the roads may be more difficult.
• Keep your eyes on the road; watch the ditch and sides for
movement and eyeshine. Not all eyes will reflect back the same
colour and may be harder to spot.
• Watch your speed; if you can’t stop within the visible distance ahead of you, you are likely going too fast. This will be variable depending on the road, time of day, conditions, your vehicle and your level of alertness.
• Alert if you see something; tap your horn to warn the animal ahead of you, tap the brakes to alert the drivers behind you.
• Don’t swerve; let off the gas and hit the brakes, but keep the vehicle straight to avoid collisions, or hitting the animal as it flees.
There will be times where a collision just can’t be avoided; never risk your own safety or the safety of other drivers and passengers, to avoid hitting an animal in the road. If it’s safe to do so, pull over to check on its condition. If it’s alive it will need either rehabilitative care, or humane euthanasia; contact an Authorized Wildlife Custodian right away. It can take days for an injured animal to succumb to injuries on the side of a road. If the animal is dead, use gloves or a towel to remove it from the road in order to prevent scavengers from getting hit while foraging on the remains.
To support wildlife in need, please consider making a donation this season:
www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/33851
Info@KawarthaWildlifeCentre.ca
705-292-9211
