Roadkill is a worldwide problem. Every year: About 340 million birds are killed on roads in the United States; around 9 million mammals (哺乳动物) of average size are killed on Brazilian roads; and China is no exception.
To deal with this, a study of "roadkill" has been conducted by Professor Li Zhongqiu and his team from Nanjing University. The study was conducted in Nanjing, which has more than 9,700 km of well-built roads. Li and his teammates ran 26 roadkill monitoring (监测) activities over 224. 27 km of roads, totaling 5,831 km during the research period. The nine roads chosen for the team's research were monitored every two weeks over the course of a year.
The team recorded a total of 293 dead bodies. Among them, birds made up nearly half the total. As a main bird species in East China, blackbirds are usually attracted by flies or other insects to dead bodies of roadkill along the roads. "Specifically, cats, dogs and blackbirds were the three most commonly killed animals," Li said. "This may be due to the large number of homeless cats and dogs in city areas. Pets thrown out of their homes are more likely to run into traffic. "
According to the report, roadkill happened a lot from May to September. The animal' increased reproductive (生殖) activity in summer and autumn is a possible reason. Besides, roadkill issues also topped in November and January. This may be due to the need to search for food during winter when food resources are few, Li said.
"There is no doubt that roadkill has contributed to the decrease of animal populations and must be taken seriously," Li said. "We call on related departments to take measures such as speed limits and necessary traffic controls during top periods of animal activities. For animals such as cats and dogs that usually use the roads, fences can prevent them from entering traffic. "
