Hi, Layna. It's interesting you mention road kill. I do a lot of bicycling and I see a lot of road kill: squirrels, skunks, 'possums, turtles, snakes, toads, I think a groundhog once, and a lot of birds that must have died and fallen. Maybe I'm just a strange person but they don't bother me much--because I know that even without any cars, most of them would have met an early death.
What I see most are squirrels, in particular, eastern gray squirrels. According to http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/eastern_gray_squirrel.htm they have 2 litters a year with 2 or 3 in a litter. A squirrel can live 5 years (i.e. 3 or 4 reproductive years). So one pair of squirrels can produce 12 to 24 young. On average, all but two of these are going to die early (else the squirrel population would expand without ever stopping). For every squirrel killed by a car, thousands, perhaps millions will be killed by starvation, predators, etc.
Yet last Sunday when I rode past a turtle slowly making its way across a road, I stopped and went back and made sure it got off the road. I had to give it a chance. Yes, I am a strange--and not entirely emotionally consistent--person.
Road kill, fecundity, and the terribleness of nature
What I see most are squirrels, in particular, eastern gray squirrels. According to
http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/eastern_gray_squirrel.htm
they have 2 litters a year with 2 or 3 in a litter. A squirrel can live 5 years (i.e. 3 or 4 reproductive years). So one pair of squirrels can produce 12 to 24 young. On average, all but two of these are going to die early (else the squirrel population would expand without ever stopping). For every squirrel killed by a car, thousands, perhaps millions will be killed by starvation, predators, etc.
Yet last Sunday when I rode past a turtle slowly making its way across a road, I stopped and went back and made sure it got off the road. I had to give it a chance. Yes, I am a strange--and not entirely emotionally consistent--person.
RAS