Motor Traffic and Wild Life

Abstract

IN a discursive and interesting paper read before the Zoological Society of London (Proc. Zoo. Soc., Ser. A, 173 ; 1937), Surgeon Rear-Admiral Beadnell has given an indication of the destruction of wild creatures caused by motor traffic in Great Britain. In the years 1932–36, in travelling by motor-car and pedal-cycle on roads in England, Wales and Scotland, he counted 2327 dead animals in 10,000 miles, or 23 in every hundred miles. The kill was made up in the following proportions: birds 81 per cent (1885 individuals), rabbits 14 per cent, hedgehogs 4 per cent, rats 0·5 per cent, and the remainder was made up of frogs, toads, moles, snakes, dogs, cats, two sheep and one forest pony. It may be taken that the number counted during a rapid survey falls far short of the total number slain, and indeed were it not that many motorists when driving are highly regardful of wild creatures, the number would be much greater than it is. But the count does not suggest that motor traffic will make appreciable inroads upon the stock of wild animals, for the numbers are insignificant compared with the rate of increase of the common species which usually fall victims. An odd death which came to the notice of the writer was that of a dog fox in beautiful pelage, which during a snowstorm in the north-east of Scotland leapt over a stone wall against the wings of a heavy lorry.