Is reduction in roadkill a sign of wildlife woes?

ROAD casualties with wildlife are always an unfortunate sight and all too common on the roads these days. Or are they?

There is a very wide range of species involved and they are continually being assessed by people to see if it indicates any changes in numbers.

One of the interesting aspects is that we only see a percentage of those animals and birds killed because some are carried off by predators before we see them. It is one aspect of road casualties that is often overlooked – their importance to predators.

Red kites have been seen quartering roadside verges looking for such road casualties whilst buzzards can sometimes be seen feeding on the occasional rabbit. The roadkill we do not see are those taken by nocturnal predators, particularly the fox.

Amphibians such as toads and frogs are also frequent road casualties, particularly the toad when they come out of hibernation and cross a road to their breeding site.

Road casualties have always created a great deal of controversy, such as the numbers of badgers killed each year, particularly along some of the “hot-spots” such as the A96 east of Inverness.

Hedgehogs have long been the cause of much speculation as to whether the numbers dead on the road indicate a marked decrease in them or are there more vehicles going faster?

Deer are another controversial and emotive subject as far as road casualties are concerned because of the damage done to vehicles and the cost in human injuries. That is apart from the suffering of the deer themselves.

The wide range of casualties is surprising and over the years it has been interesting to record some of the more unusual species I have seen. One surprise was the fulmar on a road by Loch Fleet, another was a woodcock on the road west of Braemore junction whilst another was the wild goat west of Fort William. A black grouse, a cock bird, was a surprise near Garve, as was the pine marten near Aviemore some years ago.

The records of such casualties also have another spin-off, such as recording what are otherwise nocturnal animals such as hedgehog and pine marten. Indeed, one of the most successful mapping schemes by the Highland Biological Group was the hedgehogs with many of the records from dead road casualties.

Such records of a wide range of animals has also helped in the compilation of the group’s Land Mammal Atlas recently published by them.

It is often the case that people are upset, as I always am, on seeing such road casualties but they also put a number of things into perspective.

This leads to to the main subject of this week’s Highland Wildlife and one with which I hope many readers can help with.

In the last two years or so I have been very concerned at the apparent lack, certainly a marked decrease, in the number of casualties on my various car journeys in the Highlands. For a long time this was quite a relief.

What started it all off was the lack of dead rabbits on the roads. In the last two years I have been to places like the Moy Fair, up the east coast to Loch Fleet and across to Ullapool on the west and down Loch Ness. There seemed to be very few rabbits dead on the road and on some of the journeys not a sign of any.

I started looking at some of the usual concentrations I used to see in the roadside fields and mostly negative. I started making enquiries and found others had noticed this.

Then there is a lack of other dead wildlife over a range of species. Is this just me or is there a more serious overtone to this and wildlife in general is declining with all its ramifications?

I hope many readers will prove me wrong.