3 Florida panthers die in the first 10 days of 2012

24 deaths, 32 births documented in 2011

January 2011. Florida panthers are off to a rough start in 2012, with three deaths documented by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Already, in just the first week of 2012, there were two documented deaths of panthers hit by vehicles on highways in Collier County, where the greatest concentration of panthers in the state is found. The third fatality was caused by a fight with another panther.

2011 births and deaths
Last year, 24 Florida panther deaths were recorded, but FWC biologists also observed 11 radio-collared females giving birth to 32 panther kittens. Overall, the known number of newborn panthers in 2011 appears to have offset the known number of panther deaths. Among the 24 documented panther deaths in 2011, nine deaths, or more than a third, were due to collisions with vehicles.

100-160 panthers alive
Today, an estimated 100 to 160 adults of this federally endangered species live in Florida. Panthers almost disappeared from the wild in this state when their numbers fell to fewer than 30 in the 1970s. Since then, their population has been increasing.

Vehicle collisions top cause of mortality
Collisions with vehicles continues to be the greatest source of human-caused mortality to this long-tailed cat that can weigh up to 160 pounds and grow to 6 feet or longer.

"Florida panther deaths are most often the result of one of two things: collisions with vehicles or aggression from other panthers," said Kipp Frohlich, head of the Imperiled Species Management Section at the FWC. "We can't control panthers fighting when they are defending their territory; that is a part of nature. But we can do something about human-caused panther mortalities."

"People who slow down and drive carefully in rural areas, especially where panther crossings are identified, can make a difference in conservation of this endangered species. It is especially important to slow down and keep a careful lookout at dawn or dusk, when panthers are most likely to be on the move," Frohlich said.

The FWC continues to work with many partners to conserve and increase habitat available to panthers on both public and private lands. This is a critical step to ensuring the survival of panthers, the official state animal of Florida.

Report sightings
People are encouraged to report sightings of an injured or dead panther by calling the FWC's Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922) or #FWC or *FWC on a cell phone. Another option is texting Tip@MyFWC.com (standard usage fees may apply).

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/florida-panther2012.html

Taxidermist creates animal hybrids in New Zealand

An amateur taxidermist has caused controversy over his hybrid animal stuffings which combine body parts from creatures that have been killed on the roads.

Andrew Lancaster, 57, took up taxidermy in his spare time 14 years ago – shortly after moving from England to New Zealand. Entirely self- taught, Mr Lancaster has experimented with animal creations for the last two years, regarding the work as ‘art’.

“Some people call me sick and some think it’s pretty good,” Mr Lancaster told New Zealand website Stuff. “I saw heaps of dead things on the side of the road and thought it was a waste. When I’m driving along the road and see something I pull up and go back for it,” he admitted.
Mr Lancaster, now living in Tauranga, New Zealand, sells the animal hybrids on Trade Me – the Kiwi equivalent of Craigslist. Working during the day as a marina caretaker, he creates his custom animals in the evenings and on days off.

The amateur taxidermist said he collects birds, pheasants, rats, ferrets and has even found possum babies – discovered inside of their mother’s pouch. Mr Lancaster insists that he only works on animals he finds dead and would never hunt an animal. The unique hybrids have developed a following as his Facebook site ‘Andrew Lancaster Taxidermy Creations’ currently has 241 fans.

Mr Lancaster’s wife has stopped him from keeping many of the animals but he admitted to keeping a pheasant that he “picked up from the road one morning”.     

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/taxidermist-creates-animal-hybrids-in-new-zealand.html

Bizarre roadkill perplexes DNR officials

The mystery animal was ghostly white and hairless, its neck bloated out of proportion with the rest of its limp body.


When Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials received a picture of the roadkill from Alexandria, Minn., this week, it wasn't clear what it was.


There were five front toes with long nails, so it most likely wasn't a dog. Several employees, working off the picture, concluded it was a badger.

"If you look at the picture, it is weird-looking," said Jason Abraham, a fur-bearer specialist with the DNR. "If there were four or five of these found on the road, we might have a bit more interest."

The badger, assuming that's what it was, probably lost its hair during the decomposition process, Abraham said. The animal most likely lived in Minnesota, although the species is more commonly found in Wisconsin.

The badger's picture was placed on Facebook, which gave the critter a little notoriety in the Alexandria area.

In 2006, residents of the North Shore were perplexed by a hairless animal roaming the woods. It turned out to be a timberwolf with mange.


http://www.startribune.com/local/126857738.html

Photo: http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/617*425/1badger080611.jpg

Dead bodies grab our interest (Via Herp Digest)

Dead bodies grab our interest
7/24/11, Delmavera.com

Along the road, I recently saw a red-eared turtle of a size that made me think of a 9-inch pie pan. I had never seen one so large. It was moving in a safe direction, so I drove on.

I remembered the half- dollar sized red-eared slider turtles my brothers and I had as kids. Lots of kids owned the tiny turtles -- until they were declared illegal due to salmonella.

When I was a kid, when nobody was observing it, which was most of the time, our last tiny turtle climbed out of its clear plastic habitat with the island, the plastic palm tree and water that needed changing, and vanished.

Once we discovered this disappearance, we developed heightened awareness and concern. We fretted about its safety for several days. When we couldn't find it, we were happy to believe it had escaped the confines of our house and was living blissfully in the woods, eating bugs and growing as big as a pie pan.

Then we forgot the turtle completely.

Years later, the turtle's dusty, mummified body was found behind the gas stove. Now we knew.
Our little pet had not escaped to a long, contented life outdoors, but was likely dead before we noticed its absence. The mummification was interesting, as was the fine detail seen in the turtle's dried features.
A young Ripley would have charged a nickel to see this oddity.

The turtle's death was no more or no less significant than the deaths of untold seahorses and starfish. They are turned into stiff corpses for use as souvenirs and décor for the thoughtless visual delight of humans, especially children. Their stories, more morbid than the merry stories of dying little Christmas trees, are never told.

For some people, a dead member of any species, even human, can amuse -- the dead Bonnie and Clyde, and Hitler, have done so.

Most recently, the dead bin Laden was a rich source for cartoons and jokes.

Today, good examples of our being engrossed with dead humans -- without denying a need for anatomical instruction in the medical field -- are human body exhibits for the public.
Most notable is Body World, consisting of human corpses preserved using plastination, displaying real, peeled-away, naked bodies doing everyday activities -- under the guise of education and entertainment for a profit.

It seems a dead human can offer more amusement, humor and entertainment to other humans than a dead, mummified, tiny turtle or a live, 9-inch, pie-pan sized red-eared slider ever could provide.
» George T. Mason is a former turtle owner and freelance writer who lives in Salisbury.

Tybee Island's pregnant turtles no match for motorists

Tybee Island's pregnant turtles no match for motorists
July 16, 2011 , by Mary Lnders Savannah Morning NewsAround this time each year, diamondback terrapins get an undeniable urge to lay their eggs.
Sadly for many of the lady terrapins in the marshes around Tybee, they have to cross busy U.S. 80 to find a good nesting spot on higher ground.

The race of turtle against traffic rarely ends well for the terrapin, a species that lives in salt marshes from Cape Cod to the Florida Keys and west along the Gulf Coast to Texas.

So far this year, more than 70 terrapins have lost that contest on U.S. 80.

Once numerous, terrapins were hunted to near extinction for the dining pleasure of turtle soup lovers around the turn of the last century. Their recovery from that fad has been slowed by habitat loss, drowning in crab traps and road kills. They're even occasionally threatened by airplanes. Recently, air traffic controllers at John F. Kennedy airport in New York shut down a runway as gravid terrapins crossed it to reach their nesting grounds. Terrapins are listed as a species of concern under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Like the air traffic controllers at JFK, marine educators at Tybee Island Marine Science Center do what they can to help the turtles. On their way to and from work each day, the educators are on mobile crossing guard duty.

One of the marine educators, Lauren Broome, stopped her car one day on her way home from Tybee when she saw one terrapin doing its version of the 100-yard dash.

"She was booking it," Broome said. "They're pretty quick on the street. Four or five vehicles missed her including one with a trailer, then an SUV hit her. The whole time I was cringing."

Broome knew the turtle was a goner but collected the terrapin anyway.

"She was obviously not going to make it, but I wanted to save her eggs," she said. "But they were all crushed."

That's not always the case. Broome and her colleagues have been able to extract eggs from three females and hand them over to Kathryn Craven, associate professor of biology at Armstrong Atlantic State University. Craven and her students incubate the eggs, carefully burying each in vermiculite in its own compartment of a tackle box. So far they have four clutches in the incubator, 24 eggs in all. Two sets are incubating at 25 degrees Celsius to produce males, and two are at 30 degrees Celsius to produce females. The first of the quarter-sized babies should be hatching any day now.
Informal counts of the terrapin road kills have Craven suspecting 2011 has been tough on terrapins compared to last year.

"My conclusion is that there are more animals out on the road," she said. And awareness from motorists may be down.

"As far as I know, (Georgia) DOT didn't replace the turtle signs on the causeway," she said. "They were gone by the end of last season, and there were none this year. It would be nice if DOT would replace them."

That's a concern for Ross Dersch, too. A fan of turtles who keeps yellow-bellied sliders and map turtles along with some red-footed tortoises, Dersch is frustrated the signs are gone.

"It just gets me that nobody puts signs up," he said.

Craven and the marine center educators urge drivers to be on the lookout for terrapins, especially in the evening or after a rain. And they urge would-be rescuers to ensure their own safety first.

"Take it slow," Craven said. "I know there's a lot of pressure in the traffic out there. Take it slow and watch for animals."

Only pull over if it's safe to do so. If you do assist a terrapin, give it a lift to whatever side it's headed, they advise.

Massachusetts wildlife officials seeks top turtle roadkill sites

Massachusetts wildlife officials seeks top turtle roadkill sites
7/5/11 Turle Zone News, News from around the Commonwealth concerning turtles.
By Stan Freeman for MassLive.com

Massachusetts wildlife officials seek public's help locating top turtle roadkill sites
Question: Why did the turtle cross the road?

Answer: A genetic imperative.

In recent weeks, turtles have been climbing out of the comfortable confines of ponds, lakes and streams, driven by strong reproductive instincts that have launched them on a search to find a suitable spot on dry land to lay eggs.

However, a huge number of them are killed on roadways as they make the effort, and that worries state wildlife officials who are asking the public's help in identifying turtle death hot spots.

"Many turtle species in Massachusetts are in decline and a lot of that has to do with road mortality," said Marion E. Larson, a wildlife biologist for the state Division of Fisheries & Wildlife.

"So we're asking people to tell us about where they are seeing road-killed turtles to try and identify where there are highway crossings with a lot of mortality," Larson said. "Then, as roads are repaired by departments of transportation, they may be able to change the design to make it more turtle friendly."

The Turtle Roadway Mortality Study is a joint multi-year effort by the state Department of Transportation, the state Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program and the Vernal Pool Association. The online citizen reporting page can be found at: http://linkinglandscapes.info.

Massachusetts has 10 native turtles, all of which lay their eggs on land, even though some (including the state's largest native turtle, the snapping turtle) almost never venture from water at any other time.

The peak time for egg laying is late May to early July. Typically, the eggs, which are laid in holes dug in loose or sandy soil, hatch in two to three months.

Begun in 2010, the turtle study will need several years of data before the researchers "can feel confident that we've identified the majority of the significant roadkill sites" in the state, said Michael T. Jones, a biologist at University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Jones is one of the project's coordinators.

"The worst sites that we currently know of are in eastern Massachusetts, where road density and traffic volume are greatest. At one particularly bad site in Middlesex County, more than 100 turtles of multiple species are killed each spring," he said.

At that site, along Route 119 in Littleton, the state is putting in a "turtle-friendly" culvert, as part of a scheduled road upgrade, that will act as a tunnel to allow them to cross beneath the road, Larson said.

As road sections throughout the state come up for repair or upgrade, the list of turtle-mortality hot spots will be consulted to see if a change could be made to the project design to lower the mortality, Larson said.

Turtles can live long lives, with some box turtles reaching 100 years. Since some species do not reach reproductive age until they are age 10 or more, early deaths can have a great impact on their population, Jones said.

"Turtle populations appear to be more negatively affected by high levels of roadkill than amphibians and most mammals," he said.

However, that occurs because of the breaking up of landscapes by roads and development. According to the state Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, the number one reason why turtle populations - as well as those of many animals - are in decline is the fragmentation, degradation and loss of habitat.

Legendary chupacabra spotted in Texas?

May 19, 2011 12:08 PM

Sightings of the legendary chupacabra continue - this time with a peculiar animal spotted in Helotes, Texas. KENS-TV's Karen Grace reports.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7366614n

Wildlife bridges and tunnels reducing wildlife death toll on the roads

Creating safe places for wildlife to cross

December 2010: Design features such as overpasses keep drivers moving safely on our roads, letting cars pass in different directions without interacting with other cars or trains. Allowing wildlife to move from one side of the road to the other without encountering vehicle traffic is a challenge for transport planners and wildlife managers. As transport networks continue to expand, a similar solution may help avoid wildlife-vehicle collisions.

A new study rates the effectiveness of highway underpasses for wildlife, and found that a notable number of creatures were saved - and that fewer vehicles were damaged.


Coliisions can be deadly for animals and humans
Collisions between wildlife and vehicles can cause substantial damage to vehicles as well as injure - or sometimes kill - people. As for wildlife, a deadly road can affect the viability of small populations of animals.

A new route planned for U.S. Highway 64 in Washington County, North Carolina, gave researchers the opportunity to document wildlife activity both before and after the road was built. The new route cut through a forested and agricultural area, bringing together cars and resident animals such as black bears, red wolves, and white-tailed deer. Part of the highway construction included three underpasses with fencing running alongside the roadways near each underpass to ‘funnel' the animals through.

New 'animal-safe' highway saw road deaths down by nearly 60 per cent
With the use of multiple cameras and surveys of animal tracks, researchers counted wildlife activity both in the planning and construction stages of the highway and after it was completed and open to traffic. Before road construction, the cameras captured 242 instances of deer passing through the area where the underpasses would be. During a 13-month period after construction, 2,433 photographs of various animals, primarily deer, but also bears, raccoons, and domestic dogs and cats, were taken as they used the underpasses. Animal deaths from vehicle collisions were counted as well.

When compared with reports from adjacent sections the highway, the new section of road experienced a 58 per cent reduction in wildlife mortality. This suggested a favourable cost-benefit analysis for building the underpasses.

Improvements to further reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions include continuous fencing along roads rather than small sections, higher fences, and fences dug into the ground to prevent smaller animals from going underneath. Drainage culverts placed at more frequent intervals, rather than larger underpasses built farther apart, could provide a more economical way to allow animals to pass under the road.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/roads-wildlife2010.html

Wildlife bridges and tunnels reducing wildlife death toll on the roads

Creating safe places for wildlife to cross

December 2010: Design features such as overpasses keep drivers moving safely on our roads, letting cars pass in different directions without interacting with other cars or trains. Allowing wildlife to move from one side of the road to the other without encountering vehicle traffic is a challenge for transport planners and wildlife managers. As transport networks continue to expand, a similar solution may help avoid wildlife-vehicle collisions.

A new study rates the effectiveness of highway underpasses for wildlife, and found that a notable number of creatures were saved - and that fewer vehicles were damaged.


Coliisions can be deadly for animals and humans
Collisions between wildlife and vehicles can cause substantial damage to vehicles as well as injure - or sometimes kill - people. As for wildlife, a deadly road can affect the viability of small populations of animals.

A new route planned for U.S. Highway 64 in Washington County, North Carolina, gave researchers the opportunity to document wildlife activity both before and after the road was built. The new route cut through a forested and agricultural area, bringing together cars and resident animals such as black bears, red wolves, and white-tailed deer. Part of the highway construction included three underpasses with fencing running alongside the roadways near each underpass to ‘funnel' the animals through.

New 'animal-safe' highway saw road deaths down by nearly 60 per cent
With the use of multiple cameras and surveys of animal tracks, researchers counted wildlife activity both in the planning and construction stages of the highway and after it was completed and open to traffic. Before road construction, the cameras captured 242 instances of deer passing through the area where the underpasses would be. During a 13-month period after construction, 2,433 photographs of various animals, primarily deer, but also bears, raccoons, and domestic dogs and cats, were taken as they used the underpasses. Animal deaths from vehicle collisions were counted as well.

When compared with reports from adjacent sections the highway, the new section of road experienced a 58 per cent reduction in wildlife mortality. This suggested a favourable cost-benefit analysis for building the underpasses.

Improvements to further reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions include continuous fencing along roads rather than small sections, higher fences, and fences dug into the ground to prevent smaller animals from going underneath. Drainage culverts placed at more frequent intervals, rather than larger underpasses built farther apart, could provide a more economical way to allow animals to pass under the road.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/roads-wildlife2010.html

Mapping Road Traffic's Toll on Wildlife (Via HerpDigest)

Mapping Road Traffic's Toll on Wildlife
By Malia Wollan, NY Times 9/13/10

To Ron Ringen, a retired veterinarian, roadkill is a calling.

"Most people don't realize how many animals die on the road every day - they just don't see it," he said.

While Mr. Ringen's friends goad him with nicknames like "Doctor Roadkill," he is not alone in his peculiar pursuit. Hundreds of volunteers collect and upload roadkill data to the California Roadkill Observation System, a mapping Web site built by researchers at the University of California, Davis, to better understand where and why cars strike animals.

Begun a year ago, the Web site - www.wildlifecrossing.net/california - is the first statewide effort to map roadkill using citizen observers. Volunteers comb the state's highways and country roads for dead animals, collecting GPS coordinates, photographs and species information and uploading it to a database and Google map populated with dots representing the kills. The site's gruesome gallery includes photos of flattened squirrels or squashed skunks.

"For some people the only contact they have with wild animals is when they run them over," said Fraser M. Shilling, the lead researcher on the project. "This is the first time people have been able to record roadkill online and I think it will change our understanding of what our road system is really doing to wildlife."

The site's founders hope to soon hire a software engineer to design a smartphone app. They think one would attract new and younger volunteers, speed up the process, and, with built-in GPS function, assure more accurate location information.

About 73 million GPS-enabled cellphones and 23 million automotive GPS units will be shipped in the United States and Canada this year, according to IMS Research, a market research firm. "GPS is very pervasive," said Bill Morelli, an analyst with the firm.

"Everybody is interested in pursuing the benefits of getting data points from these
devices," he said. For example, wireless providers like AT&T and Sprint are looking into applications that would use drivers' GPS smartphones to monitor traffic speed in real time.

The roadkill maps give researchers a better understanding of the environmental impacts of roads. They intend to use the data to build statistical and Geographic Information Systems models to predict roadkill hot spots and to determine where animal road crossings, culverts and warning signs may be most effective on current and future roadways.

Given the more than 258 million vehicles on the country's four million miles of public roads, it is little wonder that cars regularly strike animals. Estimates for just how many run-ins occur each year vary widely.

The Humane Society of the United States estimates that a million animals are killed by vehicles every day, while a 2008 Federal Highway Administration report puts the number of accidents with large animals between one million and two million a year. The agency estimates such accidents result in over $8 billion in damages annually.

In addition, about 200 people die each year in accidents with deer and other animals, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Federal Highway Administration provides money to state transportation agencies to help minimize the number of animal accidents. "The methods are as varied as the wildlife themselves, ranging from fences, bridges and tunnels to electronic animal-detection warning systems," said Victor Mendez, the agency's administrator.

Still, Mr. Shilling and his colleagues think that drivers armed with keen eyes, GPS devices and smartphones are perhaps better suited than government agencies to map the cumulative effects of roadkill.

In late March, the researchers started a second Web site, in Maine, called Maine Audubon Wildlife Road Watch, available via wildlifecrossing.net. "There are so many miles of road, the more people you have involved looking for roadkill, the better," said Susan Gallo, a wildlife biologist with Maine Audubon, the group that commissioned the site in partnership with the state's transportation department and other state agencies.

Despite the grisly nature of the task, volunteers have been enthusiastic, Mr. Shilling says. Even with limited public outreach, the California site has almost 300 registered users and more than 6,900 documented kills.

In Maine, the most commonly counted roadkill species is the North American porcupine. "I see an awful lot of them. They just move so slow," said Donna Runnels, 58. She uploads the data she collects while walking and riding her horse near her home in Burnham, Me.

The animal most likely to be found dead along a California road is the raccoon, though hundreds of species have been counted, including desert iguanas, black bears, tiger salamanders, brown pelicans and western shovelnose snakes.

During countless hours on hundreds of miles of road, Mr. Ringen's eyes have become attuned to the tiniest tattered remains; he can spot a flattened mouse while driving 50 miles an hour, he says. Nevertheless, occasionally his eyes trick him. He regularly pulls over for what he thinks are bird remains only to find discarded banana peels.

Last spring driving on Interstate 80 crossing the Sacramento River Delta, he saw, to his disbelief, what seemed to be a small shark on the highway. He exited and circled his car back to the spot only to find a child's stuffed toy shark. "This is how crazy you get," Mr. Ringen said. "I'm almost a fanatic with it. You get hooked. You wake up wondering 'What am I going to find out there today?' "

(From UC Davis - Some of you may have seen the above article in the NY Times about our roadkill sites - one for California and one for Maine (http://www.wildlifecrossing.net). Since then we have received dozens of requests from other states to either connect citizen scientist observers to a program in their state, or wanting information on how they could develop a roadkill observation system. I wanted to put the request out to people on this list to help me to connect people to a resource in their state they can use, or people in their state who would be interested in developing something like this. I realize that there are existing programs, some of which I have been able to find online. However, I suspect that there are programs out there that are hard to find. If you have time and either know of a roadkill reporting program in your state, or are interested in developing one, please contact me and I will potentially send some interested parties your way.
Thanks
Fraser Shilling
Co-Director, Road Ecology Center
Department of Environmental Science & Policy
University of California, Davis 95616
530-752-7859
http://roadecology.ucdavis.edu

Mapping Road Traffic's Toll on Wildlife (Via HerpDigest)

Mapping Road Traffic's Toll on Wildlife
By Malia Wollan, NY Times 9/13/10

To Ron Ringen, a retired veterinarian, roadkill is a calling.

"Most people don't realize how many animals die on the road every day - they just don't see it," he said.

While Mr. Ringen's friends goad him with nicknames like "Doctor Roadkill," he is not alone in his peculiar pursuit. Hundreds of volunteers collect and upload roadkill data to the California Roadkill Observation System, a mapping Web site built by researchers at the University of California, Davis, to better understand where and why cars strike animals.

Begun a year ago, the Web site - www.wildlifecrossing.net/california - is the first statewide effort to map roadkill using citizen observers. Volunteers comb the state's highways and country roads for dead animals, collecting GPS coordinates, photographs and species information and uploading it to a database and Google map populated with dots representing the kills. The site's gruesome gallery includes photos of flattened squirrels or squashed skunks.

"For some people the only contact they have with wild animals is when they run them over," said Fraser M. Shilling, the lead researcher on the project. "This is the first time people have been able to record roadkill online and I think it will change our understanding of what our road system is really doing to wildlife."

The site's founders hope to soon hire a software engineer to design a smartphone app. They think one would attract new and younger volunteers, speed up the process, and, with built-in GPS function, assure more accurate location information.

About 73 million GPS-enabled cellphones and 23 million automotive GPS units will be shipped in the United States and Canada this year, according to IMS Research, a market research firm. "GPS is very pervasive," said Bill Morelli, an analyst with the firm.

"Everybody is interested in pursuing the benefits of getting data points from these
devices," he said. For example, wireless providers like AT&T and Sprint are looking into applications that would use drivers' GPS smartphones to monitor traffic speed in real time.

The roadkill maps give researchers a better understanding of the environmental impacts of roads. They intend to use the data to build statistical and Geographic Information Systems models to predict roadkill hot spots and to determine where animal road crossings, culverts and warning signs may be most effective on current and future roadways.

Given the more than 258 million vehicles on the country's four million miles of public roads, it is little wonder that cars regularly strike animals. Estimates for just how many run-ins occur each year vary widely.

The Humane Society of the United States estimates that a million animals are killed by vehicles every day, while a 2008 Federal Highway Administration report puts the number of accidents with large animals between one million and two million a year. The agency estimates such accidents result in over $8 billion in damages annually.

In addition, about 200 people die each year in accidents with deer and other animals, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Federal Highway Administration provides money to state transportation agencies to help minimize the number of animal accidents. "The methods are as varied as the wildlife themselves, ranging from fences, bridges and tunnels to electronic animal-detection warning systems," said Victor Mendez, the agency's administrator.

Still, Mr. Shilling and his colleagues think that drivers armed with keen eyes, GPS devices and smartphones are perhaps better suited than government agencies to map the cumulative effects of roadkill.

In late March, the researchers started a second Web site, in Maine, called Maine Audubon Wildlife Road Watch, available via wildlifecrossing.net. "There are so many miles of road, the more people you have involved looking for roadkill, the better," said Susan Gallo, a wildlife biologist with Maine Audubon, the group that commissioned the site in partnership with the state's transportation department and other state agencies.

Despite the grisly nature of the task, volunteers have been enthusiastic, Mr. Shilling says. Even with limited public outreach, the California site has almost 300 registered users and more than 6,900 documented kills.

In Maine, the most commonly counted roadkill species is the North American porcupine. "I see an awful lot of them. They just move so slow," said Donna Runnels, 58. She uploads the data she collects while walking and riding her horse near her home in Burnham, Me.

The animal most likely to be found dead along a California road is the raccoon, though hundreds of species have been counted, including desert iguanas, black bears, tiger salamanders, brown pelicans and western shovelnose snakes.

During countless hours on hundreds of miles of road, Mr. Ringen's eyes have become attuned to the tiniest tattered remains; he can spot a flattened mouse while driving 50 miles an hour, he says. Nevertheless, occasionally his eyes trick him. He regularly pulls over for what he thinks are bird remains only to find discarded banana peels.

Last spring driving on Interstate 80 crossing the Sacramento River Delta, he saw, to his disbelief, what seemed to be a small shark on the highway. He exited and circled his car back to the spot only to find a child's stuffed toy shark. "This is how crazy you get," Mr. Ringen said. "I'm almost a fanatic with it. You get hooked. You wake up wondering 'What am I going to find out there today?' "

(From UC Davis - Some of you may have seen the above article in the NY Times about our roadkill sites - one for California and one for Maine (http://www.wildlifecrossing.net). Since then we have received dozens of requests from other states to either connect citizen scientist observers to a program in their state, or wanting information on how they could develop a roadkill observation system. I wanted to put the request out to people on this list to help me to connect people to a resource in their state they can use, or people in their state who would be interested in developing something like this. I realize that there are existing programs, some of which I have been able to find online. However, I suspect that there are programs out there that are hard to find. If you have time and either know of a roadkill reporting program in your state, or are interested in developing one, please contact me and I will potentially send some interested parties your way.
Thanks
Fraser Shilling
Co-Director, Road Ecology Center
Department of Environmental Science & Policy
University of California, Davis 95616
530-752-7859
http://roadecology.ucdavis.edu

Road kill used to make sporrans

5 August 2010

A Scottish taxidermist is using animals knocked down and killed on roads to make sporrans.

Kate Macpherson, of Beauly, Inverness-shire, has collected badgers, foxes, deer and stoats from verges.

But she has been criticised by animal welfare campaigners who say she is encouraging the use of animals for clothing.

Mrs Macpherson said she was inspired by the the badger skin sporran worn by her father's Army regiment.

"If I didn't pick up these animals they would be rotting in a ditch," she said.

"I'm creating something useful from them rather than allowing their beauty to be wasted."

The mother-of-three's friends and neighbours tip her off on the location of road kills.

Mrs Macpherson, who trained in taxidermy when she was 22, has licences to handle protected animals, but has faced complaints from animal welfare groups.

Lynda Korimboccus, head of the Scottish Animal Rights Alliance, said the use of the animals - even if they were killed on a road - was wrong.

She added: "Using a dead animal for clothing perpetuates the idea that that's what animals are for."

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Road_kill_used_to_make_sporrans

Three Florida panthers were found killed by cars within three days recently: (from Chad Arment)

http://swflorida.blogspot.com/2010/05/three-florida-panthers-killed-in-3-days.html

'Drunk' man tried to revive roadkill

A US man has been charged with public drunkenness after he tried to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to roadkill.

Police arrested Donald Wolfe, 55, after witnesses reported seeing him trying to revive a long dead possum, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

One reported seeing Mr Wolfe kneeling before the animal and gesturing as though he were conducting a seance.

Another reported seeing him give mouth to mouth resuscitation to the carcass on a highway north-east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

State police trooper Jamie Levier said the animal had been dead a while.

Trooper Levier says the Brookville man was "extremely intoxicated" and "did have his mouth in the area of the animal's mouth, I guess".

A possum is about the size of a domestic cat. The animals are known for feigning death when threatened, hence the phrase "playing possum".

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3728510.html?menu=news.quirkies

Meet the man who cooks and eats road kill

18th November 2009

By Stephen Bailey

JONATHAN McGowan likes healthy meat. So he only eats animals that have been run over.

The 42-year-old from Bournemouth patrols Dorset for dead deer, badgers and toads.

Jonathan’s Fox Curry

Fry strips of fox tenderloin with chopped shallots, garlic, celery, red peppers and wild Dorset mushrooms in olive oil for five minutes. Then put the ingredients in a saucepan with a dash of water before adding salt and pepper, and a jar of Tikka Masala sauce. Simmer for ten minutes then serve with Pilau rice and home made elderberry and blackberry wine.

“Rats are lovely,” he said as the Echo joined him for a day around Wareham and Bere Regis.

“They are a bit like pork and they taste salty. They are delicious in a stir-fry.”

Jonathan is a naturalist and got curious about the taste of the animals when he looked for specimens to stuff.

His freezer is full of his favourite meats like freshly killed muntjac deer.

He said: “I am a scavenger, a hunter gatherer like man used to be. I don’t buy commercial meat. I find modern farming methods cruel and unhealthy.

“The animals get BSE, they are full of hormones and steroids and additives.

“I try to eat healthy meat from animals that have lived a good life in the world and not been contaminated.

“They don’t live long and because they are active, the meat is leaner and more tasty.

“To waste it when there are people starving in the world seems crazy to me.”

He only picks up freshly killed animals that are not too “mashed” by passing cars.

We passed a thoroughly squashed badger that had been dead for a few days.

Apparently the interior flesh might still be edible once the animal had been washed and the grit removed.

But Jonathan finds so many animals that he does not need to bother with such poor finds.

We found a pheasant near Wareham and a young male fox that had been killed overnight in the bus lane of Bournemouth’s Christchurch Road.

Back at his Pokesdown flat, Jonathan cut a strip of purple tenderloin meat from the fox’s back, ignoring the musky smell.

He fried it up with beansprouts and Hoi-Sin sauce, and the meat was a bit chewy but otherwise unremarkable.

He said: “Fox is usually very tasty and more-ish. It’s not fatty. It’s lovely and sweet and tender. I put it in curries and spaghetti bolognese.”

There is little he has not tried.

Blackbirds have rich, dark meat. Owls are quite bland, while cormorants are excellent with cranberry sauce.

Badger and otter are muttony with a slightly bitter flavour.

The flesh of stoats and weasels can be contaminated with their defensive anal scent, and hedgehogs are very fatty with an unpleasant rancid flavour.

He is a taxidermist and member of Bournemouth Natural Science Society, and many of his finds are stuffed for educational use.

He grew up in the countryside and his real passion is conservation. He records the levels of roadkill, and said it shows the damage we do to the animal world – he would not kill one of these animals himself.

Jonathan said his friends are often reluctant to try his meat but when they give it a go are usually won over.

“My boyfriend doesn’t give a damn. He eats venison and likes it. A lot of my friends who come for a meal trust me and know the meat will be fresh.”

What would his menu be if he appeared on the dinner part themed show Come Dine With Me?

“A frog and watercress soup to start. Then mayfly sorbet – they taste like toast. And for the main, roast hare with parsnips and gravy.”

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/4747249.Rats_are_salty_but_delicious_in_a_stir_fry__Meet_the_Bournemouth_man_who_cooks_and_eats_animals_he_finds_dead_on_the_roadside/

(Submitted by Mark North)

Meet the man who cooks and eats road kill

18th November 2009

By Stephen Bailey

JONATHAN McGowan likes healthy meat. So he only eats animals that have been run over.

The 42-year-old from Bournemouth patrols Dorset for dead deer, badgers and toads.

Jonathan’s Fox Curry

Fry strips of fox tenderloin with chopped shallots, garlic, celery, red peppers and wild Dorset mushrooms in olive oil for five minutes. Then put the ingredients in a saucepan with a dash of water before adding salt and pepper, and a jar of Tikka Masala sauce. Simmer for ten minutes then serve with Pilau rice and home made elderberry and blackberry wine.

“Rats are lovely,” he said as the Echo joined him for a day around Wareham and Bere Regis.

“They are a bit like pork and they taste salty. They are delicious in a stir-fry.”

Jonathan is a naturalist and got curious about the taste of the animals when he looked for specimens to stuff.

His freezer is full of his favourite meats like freshly killed muntjac deer.

He said: “I am a scavenger, a hunter gatherer like man used to be. I don’t buy commercial meat. I find modern farming methods cruel and unhealthy.

“The animals get BSE, they are full of hormones and steroids and additives.

“I try to eat healthy meat from animals that have lived a good life in the world and not been contaminated.

“They don’t live long and because they are active, the meat is leaner and more tasty.

“To waste it when there are people starving in the world seems crazy to me.”

He only picks up freshly killed animals that are not too “mashed” by passing cars.

We passed a thoroughly squashed badger that had been dead for a few days.

Apparently the interior flesh might still be edible once the animal had been washed and the grit removed.

But Jonathan finds so many animals that he does not need to bother with such poor finds.

We found a pheasant near Wareham and a young male fox that had been killed overnight in the bus lane of Bournemouth’s Christchurch Road.

Back at his Pokesdown flat, Jonathan cut a strip of purple tenderloin meat from the fox’s back, ignoring the musky smell.

He fried it up with beansprouts and Hoi-Sin sauce, and the meat was a bit chewy but otherwise unremarkable.

He said: “Fox is usually very tasty and more-ish. It’s not fatty. It’s lovely and sweet and tender. I put it in curries and spaghetti bolognese.”

There is little he has not tried.

Blackbirds have rich, dark meat. Owls are quite bland, while cormorants are excellent with cranberry sauce.

Badger and otter are muttony with a slightly bitter flavour.

The flesh of stoats and weasels can be contaminated with their defensive anal scent, and hedgehogs are very fatty with an unpleasant rancid flavour.

He is a taxidermist and member of Bournemouth Natural Science Society, and many of his finds are stuffed for educational use.

He grew up in the countryside and his real passion is conservation. He records the levels of roadkill, and said it shows the damage we do to the animal world – he would not kill one of these animals himself.

Jonathan said his friends are often reluctant to try his meat but when they give it a go are usually won over.

“My boyfriend doesn’t give a damn. He eats venison and likes it. A lot of my friends who come for a meal trust me and know the meat will be fresh.”

What would his menu be if he appeared on the dinner part themed show Come Dine With Me?

“A frog and watercress soup to start. Then mayfly sorbet – they taste like toast. And for the main, roast hare with parsnips and gravy.”

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/4747249.Rats_are_salty_but_delicious_in_a_stir_fry__Meet_the_Bournemouth_man_who_cooks_and_eats_animals_he_finds_dead_on_the_roadside/

(Submitted by Mark North)