Question: How to Reduce Vehicle/Wildlife Collisions??

umchorn2

umchorn2

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Whitetail rut is in full swing right now across the prairie provinces and I have already seen 4 mature white-tailed deer bucks and many does and yearlings dead on the shoulder of highway 16 east of Saskatoon in only a couple short weeks and stretch of highway. Four 200+ pound 3.5 year olds or older. Deer that would be worth a $3,500 guided hunt.

Vehicle and wildlife collisions not only cost insurance companies tens of millions of dollars annually, but they result in loss of human life as well as millions in lost revenue for the provinces wildlife departments.

SGI's website reads "On average 327 people are injured and 4 killed in animal-related collisions on Saskatchewan Roads. In fact, there were nearly 16,000 wildlife collisions reported to SGI in 2006 and the total cost in claims was more than $29 million."

So what's the answer? How do we reduce the mortality of our wildlife and keep drivers safe? Obviously everyone is responsible for their own safety and slowing down at night or through areas that could hold wildlife is just an intelligent decision, but what other actions or policies can we take that would result in fewer human-wildlife collisions and is it even neccessary to do anything??
 
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There was some whistles that were mounted on the hood on each side that people swore by . Don't know who made them but this was maybe 20 years ago
 
In some cases hitting deer is nearly unavoidable. Slow down and keep your eyes open. The deer can seem like they come out of nowhere.
 
When deer are in the ditch eating just stay the course. Cover the brake peddle, but dont kill the cruise control. As soon as they hear the vehicle slowing down the heads come up and they start running in random directions. This of course doesn't apply when they run out of the ditch into your path.

But to answer your question: lock them all up in your fenced in game farm.
 
If more people were respectable hunters allowing hunting along roadways would eliminate all of the deer feeding in the ditches and give them a reason to avoid the roads.
 
radsdiagram3.jpg

I accidentally installed the deer whistles on my car backwards. Now everywhere I go, I'm chased by a herd of deer. - Steven Wright
 
Juster said:
radsdiagram3.jpg

I accidentally installed the deer whistles on my car backwards. Now everywhere I go, I'm chased by a herd of deer. - Steven Wright
Click to expand...

They installed one of these systems south of North Bay a few years back. Works awesome, the lights flash and you never see what broke the beam?!! You just have lights to distract you from actually watching the road!!'
 
We have Whistles here called "Shoo Roo's" cos for a long time the Roos were most widespread an in big numbers, However, in last 2 years you will see a lot more Deer hit an runs in the Southern Eastern side of the Country..... the big brown deers too...

Don't know if they will Shoo Roo........

love the comment regarding the Backwards whistles and a mob of deer!!


I think in the 1980s and 1990s People just weren't so fricken uptight an in a RUSH to do everything, they took the extra 5 minutes to slow down at "Likely" animals Black Spots or known Crossing sections of animals... Some can pick up the Eyes reflecting an can slow down.

Touch wood I have passed a tonne of Animals, standing on the Road but I seem to pick up what the yare going to do, the roo will look one way before it hops that way..... deer possibly more skittish - esp whiteflags an the like. ive passed some big Sambar in the Drains/gutters with the Fresh Green grass an they just raise the Head an continue on..

obviously its the bugger who thinks it can slip across in 10ft of space that gets Rolled!!! big damage.


Not sure what to do but possibly .... USER AWARENESS-SLOW DOWN.


We have all heard the LAdy who rings the Radio station an mentions they need to move the "DEER CROSSING" signs further out of Town...yeah? LOL
 
Warning: My professional opinion.

Slow down and pay attention. The amount of deer hit here are staggering, and as someone who's put tens of thousands of kilometers in deer infested highways and backroads, at speeds up to 180km/h, it boggles my mind how many are hit on a daily basis.

I've hit one, doing about 25 in a foggy back road. Basically bodychecked it into the ditch, got up and ran away. Outside of that I've yet to even have a close call. Yes they will run into your vehicle, but if you see them in the ditch looking all deer-confused, slow to a crawl and go by. There's very little excuse. We have 7 guys who've put probably conservatively 150000km a year on 4 pc's. Through all weather, times of day, speeds, you name it, and in my over 2 and a bit years here, we've had one deer strike. And he was speeding at night.

People can claim oh it just happens. But honestly if we don't hit them and we have no better headlights than any other vehicle, it's just excuses for mostly operator error.

Slow the F down at night, use your brains and realize dawn and dusk they are going to be crossing the roads more, and pick your head up from your damn phones.

Deer are easy to spot. (Moose not so much)
 
There is the idea that roadkill greatly exceeds hunting kills

"An estimated 1.3 million animals die every day after being struck by cars and trucks in Brazil, according to a recent study by Centro Brasileiro de Estudos em Ecologia de Estradas."
https://www.thedodo.com/road-kill-every-day-1392772624.html
Mind you, this would include frogs and so on.

"What Has The Most Impact On Deer Numbers: Bumpers or Bullets?"
http://simplehunting.org/dispensable-male/

Driving through some places you could kill several animals, including large birds, a day if you wanted to deliberately whack them with the truck.
 
I believe that most people are completely unaware that deer are present. Deer just aren't part of the world that they pay attention to. I thank my attention and training as a hunter for preventing many collisions that otherwise would have happened while I was driving. If you are unaware of the deer on the field margin or ditch, you have little chance of avoiding it if it makes a dash across.
I have pointed out many, many deer to passengers while driving, my experience is that hunters see them right away, non-hunters maybe half as quick or not at all. You can call it "situational awareness" or being in the moment, or paying attention, I think society in general is going the other way, not getting better at noticing deer.
 
We have the same problem here, but not with white tails, but moose and caribou. It's not all the animals fault. It's all the idiots with a drivers license who think they are on the Autobaun, no matter if it's day or night, or questionable weather conditions. Driver education is key. Slow down. If you have to leave 10 minutes earlier to get somewhere its not going to make a big difference. Also, clearing the brush back from the highways has helped too.
 
I tell all the folks that have no clue "If you see a deer on or cross the road in front of you, don't watch that deer but watch where it came from there are usually more and they want to catch up" With 2, 25 year old daughters that drive like idiots most days, it has saved them more than once.
 
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