General Cycling Discussion - Why is roadkill always on the shoulders?

Well? It's not like the cars that kill them drive on the shoulder, so why does it always end up there?

:confused:

Bounced off by the impact, dragged itself off in an attempt to escape it's pain, dragged off by another animal.... take your pick.

apart from glass, rocks, metal, plastic, car parts, nuts, bolts, bricks, radar police and ladies of lesser morals, if roadkill wasnt on the shoulder what else would you have to swerve for?

i keep my roadkill in the freezer.

It makes for good bunny hop practice.

so it does not get tenderized more than necessary.

I have seen a lot of road kills, but the one I hate most are the "Fresh" skunk road kill, they are worst that a live skunk...., and any animal that has been there for about 3 to 5 days they get bloated with worms inside and when they are hit again the worms are all over the place and will sap the smell out of your body, and enough for you to loose your bearings....

Funny thing, I don't recall seeing a whole lot of
roadkill in South Africa. Sure you get your occaisional
cow, or zebra, but never any regular average roadkill.
curious, very curious.
Lots of road kill here, mostly racoons or skunks
with an occaisionaly coyote thrown in. The only
solace is the turkey buzzards keep the roads pretty clean.
maybe the buzzards drag it off to the side?

marty

Hi,

pardon my lack of knowledge but whats a roadkill? is it the ubiquitous american fat squirrel that often gets run over on the roads? i remember this fact from a website named roadkillbill.com.

Thank you
srinipartha.

Roadkill gets moved everytime it gets hit by a car. Sooner or later it ends up on the shoulder where it stays. If you want a full scientific explanation read the book "Full House" by Stephan Jay Gould.

I, too, wonder at how those carcasses end up on the sides of the road... can you imagine, those poor, innocent animals, staggering with their last dying breaths to the side of the road, trying to make it back to their families and friends for help and reassurance, with labored breaths, each step knowing they are closer to meeting their maker.... I lay awake at night wondering about these things. O how my world is torn asunder when I see these helpless victims lying lifeless and motionless on the side of the road.... O the horror, sweet horror!

:lol:

Anyway, for those who are unaffected by roadkill, I've found a number of websites that can instruct you on what to do with the unclaimed bodies:

http://www.globe-guardian.com/archives/twisted/tl0004.htm
http://www.outsideinsides.com/recipes.asp
http://www.collideascope.com/rkq/spring-summer96/recipes.html

Bon Appetit!

Koffee

Originally posted by lotek
Sure you get your occaisional
cow, or zebra,

These are practice for your more advanced bunny hops :D

I've had roadkill come off my back tire and stick to my calf before, but I don't recall any on my shoulder...:beer:

It doesn't always...

The worst for me is when there's roadkill on a climb in the summer, so I'm breathing hard and have to suck in that nasty rotten carcass smell

Originally posted by lotek
[B Sure you get your occaisional
cow, or zebra, but never any regular average roadkill.
curious, very curious.


marty [/B] Too heavy for the rednecks to drag off and they are typically too lazy to bother to butcher it.

Roadkill was an invaluable resource for my natural history course. We were able to look at animals that would otherwise be out of reach to us daytime dwellers during our hikes in the field.

Snakes were a common site as they tend to use the hot asphalt to keep warm when the sun went down.

However, I found the traditional joke of bringing one of these roadkills to the pizza place afterwards exclaiming, "I got the toppings!" was a bit over the top.:eek:

I remember that in Colorado, the State Department of Fish and Game would drag the larger animals to the shoulder of the road and leave them there for other critters to feed on. It was illegal to pick up road kill if if was a "game" animal.

Some of the animals that weren't too badly destroyed were taken to orphanages, etc where the meat would be used. (According to a friend of mine who worked there one Summer, there was quite a lot of deer that fell into that category.

I got into quite a pissing match with one warden when I picked up a dead pheasant off my next-door-neighbors front porch where it died when it flew into his glass door and broke it's neck. I finally had him put his supervisor on the phone so I could explain it to a more rationale person. He thought it was a bit amusing and only requested that I allow one of their wardens to inspect the bird to make sure it hadn't been shot out of season. I readily agreed, but they never showed up.

What? You guys have shoulders?

Here in the great (not) state of Alabama in the US, the 10 foot wide lane ends at the ditch.

Dave

Originally posted by Chris L
Well? It's not like the cars that kill them drive on the shoulder, so why does it always end up there?

:confused:

It doesn't matter the country... :lol: one can always tell a city boy. :roflmao:

Originally posted by cycletourist
Roadkill gets moved everytime it gets hit by a car. Sooner or later it ends up on the shoulder where it stays. If you want a full scientific explanation read the book "Full House" by Stephan Jay Gould.

yes, this is the correct explanation... as long as a body is in the middle of the road, it is gonna keep bouncing left or right depending how it is hit by a passing car... this is random chance. Eventually it will move to a portion of the road where it is practically impossible to be hit by a car, and this is usually either the median or the shoulder of the road.

Think of it like... a ping pong ball bouncing around in a box with a blowing fan, with a small cutout in the side. the ping pong ball will bounce around for a while until by some stroke of luck it passes through the hole instead of hitting a wall.

I made roadkill once.

Hammering along when a chipmunk ran into the road, saw me coming, and dashed back towards the ditch. Right into my front spokes. I thought, "Oh, $h!t, I'm going down." But no, with a ZZZZING! he flew right off that flying fan face of spokes.

I felt bad. I thought, "Geez, I don't ride to kill things."

And yes, he did end up on the shoulder. :(

Originally posted by LET
I got into quite a pissing match with one warden when I picked up a dead pheasant off my next-door-neighbors front porch where it died when it flew into his glass door and broke it's neck. I finally had him put his supervisor on the phone so I could explain it to a more rationale person.

A pissing match over the telephone? You could get electrocuted!

:eek:

Well, I'm not sure why roadkill is always on the side, but what I say is, if any of our car driving friends actually saw and smelt roadkill first hand as we cyclist do, those drivers would become traumatized and have to go to trauma therapy.

Originally posted by Garbear
It doesn't matter the country... :lol: one can always tell a city boy. :roflmao:

Actually Garbear, I grew up in the country. A very small town called Werris Creek. Not even the roadkill made it out there! However, being near Tamworth, we did cop some extremely hopless buskers around country music week. :eek:

Chris L, I know this will just killya but we have had so much rain this past week that I saw no less than 5 road kill beavers on the road between my home and Memphis today! I guess the high water is flushing them out of their dens!:eek:

Interestingly, our county jail, about ten years ago, used to save a lot of money on food by collecting larger roadkill and butchering out what could be salvaged to feed to the inmates. I understand it was prepared decently, and beside, it's not like the inmates had done anything to deserve the kind of meals we're forced to pay for now because of legal action