Killing season

[Fuscus]

Killing season is almost apon us. Reptiles awake from their winter slumber, are horny and hungry so go wandering. Some cross roads. On one trip to wilpenia pound (400 km approx) about this time last year I counted 68 dead sleepies. The bodies are generally cleaned up within a couple of days so we can assume that about 30 sleepies die along that stretch most days in spring.

Kinda puts the effects of collecting from the wild in perspective.

Drive carefully people.

[sxereturn]

And to think a 30cm high mesh wall either side of that road would solve the problem...

[Fuscus]

Originally Posted by sxereturn

And to think a 30cm high mesh wall either side of that road would solve the problem...

but that would fragment the populations and wouldn't help most snakes.

Originally Posted by sxereturn

And to think a 30cm high mesh wall either side of that road would solve the problem...

Damn thats alot of mesh!!!

Imagine being the poor sod having to install that all through the country...lol

Or, we could get prisoners to do it like the olden day chain gangs!

[Fuscus]

The simplist answer I could think of is to install anti-grav devices on all cars and we travel 3 meters above the road. Unfortunatly that would also spare a lot of cane toads.

[sxereturn]

Not if you had lasers the were attracted to them.

[Fuscus]

Originally Posted by sxereturn

Not if you had lasers the were attracted to them.

This gives me an idea, we could develop anti-grav hunter-seekers powered by flies ( http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996366 ) to hover over Kakadu and laser out the cane toads.

Of course, the things will eventually run amok and we will be saved by some guy with a limited vocabuary and a shelia in a skimpy and/or torn top

[AGAMIDAE]

unfortunately, I dont think there is a solution to this problem, unless you remove all car from the road.....and I dont think thats going to happen

[instar]

Simple solution is for idiot rev heads to slow down. you can anywhere in good time , there is no need to be there yesterday. If you like speed go to a circuit !

[sxereturn]

Sleepy lizards are black, normally, or very dark. This, coupled with the blackness of the road = very hard to see at 60-80-100km/h.

[instar]

I rest my case sxe!

[sxereturn]

So what, people should get out of their cars and walk?

[instar]

They should just remember they are not the only ones on the road ! Im from sydney sxe, where 99.999% of drivers are arrogant #$&*@'s who dont less what or who is in there way!
So many people drive aggressivly on our roads without the slightest consideration for other drivers, pedestrians or wildlife, as long as they can get there fast. We live too fast nowdays imo, never stop to smell the roses, no wonder we have so little appreciation for our enviroment. Just makes me cranky.

[Fuscus]

Sleepies are dead easy to avoid (poor choice of words there) and they are not difficult to see. It is about the same difficulty as avoiding a single brick on the road. As long as the tiries don't touch the lizard it will be unharmed. Unfortunatly there are a number of people who don't care ( as instar says ) or who intentionally run the animals over. The old nails-in-the-roadkill trick is tempting.

[instar]

And not nearly enuff drivers caring enuff to stop and relocate wandering wildlife away from roads or remove roadkill for the same reason ! Death on the roads is meaningless unless its there loved ones or children, we get bombared with human death toll figures and campaigns,
but rarely see a tv campaign aimed at reducing wildlife roadkill, nobody cares enuff, it dosent win pollys votes!

Sorry, had my rant, ill leave it there before i go too far. :wink: