OPINION

OPINION | KAREN MARTIN: Vehicular attacks on wildlife

Karen Martin
Karen Martin


The goslings are back, waddling the paths that line the Arkansas River Trail.

It's a pleasure to see these little creatures learning the ropes from their protective Canada geese parents. It's not hard to find them along the north and south sides of the Arkansas River. Some are tiny, covered with down. Others are a bit older, still downy but with longer legs and a more forceful command of their bodies as they are escorted by their distinctively marked black-headed moms and dads from the grassy fields bordering the River Trail along North Little Rock's Burns Park into the river and back.

Recently a family of five little ones were learning how to paddle along the edge of the Rockwater Marina in a straight line, with one parent leading the way and another bringing up the rear. One of the youngsters got befuzzled and ended up behind the backup parent, then was gently ushered back into the vertical array. It was a charming sight.

The next time a gaggle of geese is in sight, count them: It's likely the total will be an even number. If a goose's mate dies, the survivor may mourn by staying away from the flock and swimming around in despair. Some move on to find a new mate; others become widows or widowers.

The babies learn to fly at about 10 weeks (a beautiful sight), then stick around with their families for about a year before heading out on their own.

Their parents show a marked disregard for vehicles approaching them as they cross Rockwater Boulevard and River Road. Local drivers know better than to lay on their horns to get the big birds to pick up the pace. We've learned to stop and wait. The geese demand the right of way. If I get too close to them on my bicycle, they hiss at me. But they refuse to hurry. Fair enough.

Another sight along River Road is not so appealing: Animals that have been hit by vehicles.

So far, in my three years living here, I've never seen a goose corpse in the road. And I hope I never do.

A large armadillo was just barely in the road near Riverview Skateboard Park a couple of weeks ago, legs in the air, not busted apart, but slightly bloodied on his underside, enough to take his life. I got off my bike and gently shoved him/her into the long grass on the side of the road (the animal was surprisingly heavy) so he wouldn't suffer the indignity of being flattened by the driver of one of the many giant pickups speeding along the road.

I needn't have made the effort. A few days later he/she was in the eastbound lane in fragments, and somehow, later that week, in the westbound lane, his body pretty much destroyed by vehicles that could easily have avoided doing such damage.

The week after that I encountered a pretty five-inch-long turtle who'd suffered the same fate; I moved him/her off the road too, wondering if I'd see the creature back in the road sometime later.

Opossums and raccoons are often victims, as are squirrels, birds, rats, cats and dogs. Deer get hit frequently, but seldom intentionally, as hitting deer will likely cause damage to a vehicle.

What kind of people get their kicks by running over animals? According to a story in The Atlantic in 2012, Clemson University student Nathan Weaver was trying to figure out how to make it safer for turtles to cross highways. "What he ended up finding was that turtles will never be safe because the human heart is dark, and there will always be drivers who intentionally run over or try and aim their vehicles at the defenseless reptiles."

The AP reports that Weaver put realistic-looking rubber turtles, no bigger than a saucer, in the middle of a lane on a busy road near the Clemson campus. Then he got out of the way and watched as over the next hour, seven drivers intentionally ran over the turtles, and several more appeared to try to hit them, but missed.

To be exact, Weaver recorded that one in 50 drivers actually ran over the dummy turtles. That ratio isn't exactly alarming, "but consider how long it takes a turtle to cross the road and it becomes plain to see that road-crossing for turtles on any semi-busy road means guaranteed death." That doesn't even take into account people trying to hit the turtle and missing.

The website faunalytics.org says driver attitudes (including fear, loathing, and boredom) toward deliberate vehicle-wildlife collisions can put wildlife at risk. Snakes are the top choice of vehicular abuse. Mitigation efforts should be aimed at preventing small animals from moving onto roads.

Using fencing to funnel wildlife toward man-made corridors for safe passage around roads can help, writes veterinarian Debra Teachout on the site. "Since the roughly 3 percent of people who intentionally hit wild animals on the road may be hard to reach and persuade, we must strive to protect these animals in other ways."

There's a lot to worry about in today's contentious culture, but living among humans who think it's great sport to mangle wildlife with powerful 4,000-pound metal machines shouldn't be one of them.

Karen Martin is senior editor of Perspective.

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