In my part of the world (Townsville – Cairns), the most enormous number of agile wallabies and northern brown bandicoots meet their fate on our roads. But these species are abundant and not threatened by this mortality rate.

Other species have benefitted. Roadkills have helped boost the populations of Torresian crows, black kites, wedge-tailed eagles and other scavengers.

But yes, the death of wildlife on our roads is horrific, and does indeed threaten the viability some species or some populations, such as the southernmost population of the southern cassowary.

< Let's stop laughing and do something to stop roadkill before yet more creatures are extinct. >

But how?

We see warning signs about roos, wombats, koalas, ducks, tortoises, etc, on the roads all over the country.

We’ve got overhead crossings for possums and the like in the North Queensland Wet Tropics and huge signs and reduced speed limits around Mission Beach to reduce the mortality of cassowaries.

We’ve got reflectors that send a flash of light from car headlights off into the bush to scare animals back from the road. This I think was pioneered a few years ago for the rare and endangered Proserpine rock wallaby.

But in the bigger picture, what can we really do?

We should be striving for an overall sustainable society which is in balance with the natural environment so that we can end the conversion of bushland to humanised landscapes and have the economic wherewithal to be able to properly manage our national parks and other reserves, and implement recovery programs for rare species.

We certainly should NOT be spending enormous resources on dealing directly with reducing roadkills while at the same time sitting back and just letting our stupid government charge forth with very rapid unending population growth, and all the other totally antisustainable stuff that they are doing.

Thank you for this article. Australia has the highest extinction rate of mammals in the modern world, since European settlement. Roads, housing and farms are simply planned and executed across wildlife habitat without any thought or consideration. Not only is road kill fatal for animals, but costly for drivers and vehicles. There should be overpasses and underpasses and safe ways of using overhead netting. Nothing virtually has been done. For a mega-diverse nation like Australia, wildlife have been marginalized to a great degree, and considered not much higher than vermin or feral animals. It's to our loss and shame. It's hard to change mentalities set in from colonial times.

This is drivel as only could be written by someone who cannot be living in such an area as country Tasmania. I do.

I have long ago lost count of animals that have committed suicide on the Bullbar of my 4wheel drive. If you drive , at night , in country Tasmania you WILL hit animals, no matter what your speed or the care you take.

Hot Spots.. yep they exist.. It's called a warm Road through a Forest,at night, in WINTER in Tasmania.. then it's a dead animal every 400 metres, every night!

It's a worry that someone is actually compiling Stats on how many BIRDS I somehow hit in Tassie ,each year.Difficult little buggers to get , those Birds..

Who finances this ?

The Greens and Labor are well on the nose in Tasmania and with a combined support of 40 %, they are heading for a Qld Style train wreck. It cannot come soon enough !

Australia is rich in biodiversity, and this richness is something to be valued and cherished. The roads are not meant to be for animal and bird "suicides". It's like blaming the wildlife for their own demise. Humans drive cars, and humans must take care and drive slowly. Driving recklessly, like a bull in a china shop, will inevitably cause fatalities. It's presumptuous that drivers think they have the right of way. The problem and solutions should be inherent in planning processes, not simply a retrospect concession or afterthought. Drivers must slow down, and ecologist should be able to invent some non-lethal methods of deterrent and ways wildlife can cross without risking their lives.

Yesterday I slowly traversed the Flinders Hwy from Charters Towers to Townsville and photographed a few roadkills, to add to my very large collection of roadkill photos.

A huge number of agile wallabies! (but no bandicoots out there in the drier country)

Also eastern grey kangaroos, wallaroos, bettongs and various birds – pheasant coucal, whistling kite and lots of older unidentifiable ones.

And an enormous numbers of crows and black kites, and a couple of wedgies, hanging around the roadkills.

Very depressing indeed.

Well, I live in one of the many parts of Sydney that borders on a national park, and in order to get to work I need to drive through said park twice a day.

This is what I would term a hotspot for roadkill - swamp wallabies, ringtail possums, and Eastern bandicoots mostly - and I can certainly see how having more appropriate traffic control measures could reduce the number of fatalities.

However these would have to be quite radical in order to control the hoons who insist on driving too fast through this twisty piece of road in the middle of the night, and whom I suspect are the primary cause of this carnage. Such people are not at all dissuaded by speed limits, traffic calming devices etc.

Some in the local community have put up a proposal to have the road closed between dawn and dusk - but unfortunately this hasn't been accepted. But is there anything else that actually works, aside from a constant police presence? We can't exactly conduct a campaign to promote road safety amongst our native wildlife. Animal crossings are all very well, but somehow I can't imagine any self-respecting marsupial going out of their way to use one when the more direct route beckons...

Thank you for this article, Valerie.
There is a lot we can do with wildlife crossings, which can include tunnels, overpasses, ropes across roads etc. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_crossing

Last year I attended a short film screening by a woman who told me that wildlife corridors were seen by the public as an extra expense with new highways, therefore freeway-construction planners avoided creating them. I thought that she was naive and taken in by some industry-hype, but she is not the only one. How else to explain the lack of wildlife crossings and corridors in this country?

It is the developers and freeway builders who do not like wildlife corridors or wildlife. They just want open-slather and no non-paying life-forms.

The public, however, are really horrified by the carnage. We have freeways and other roads crisscrossing Australia and ringbarking the coast of this entire continent. The very least we can do is make generous wildlife crossings frequently along their length. Australian planners are very behind in this science but Australians themselves want us to make lots of wildlife crossings.

It's not always just the animals that are the roadkill. A small car at high speed colliding with a red kangaroo will root the roo. It also stands a good chance of rooting the driver.

I think that is the best way to educate people about this. Show them a graphic ad with a person copping it along with the wildlife. We do it for other road safety campaigns. Show them a nasty accident involving both types of roadkill: the sickos who don't care about the furry kind will care about the furless kind if you can get them to picture themself in the driving seat.

Cheers,

Tony

Valerie Yule:

...Good subject and close to the heart of most people I notice. I definitely do not identify with the green movement, but I do give a toss about the carnage to our wild life on the road. If the animal is killed outright it’s a blessing; but the (mostly) horrific injuries endured by the survivors of collision is appalling.

...Vehicle headlighting has an urgent need for sophisticated innovation. The legal requirement to “dip” headlights at oncoming vehicles, is a root cause of many animal collisions at night: This stupidity leaves all drivers “flying blind” until vehicles pass.

...Whats wrong with a three position headlight…one beam between high and low; this beam designed for country driving. Too simple?!

...I disagree with posters protesting the use of high beam. High beam saves the lives of animals by freezing them long enough for a vehicle to pass them...except foxes...they tend to run down the road in the direction of the light, and for that, are run down from behind.

...Semis' are also a root cause of much road carnage, with an inherent inability to even slow down for animals, let alone stop...very tragic stuff!