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Nice story about the caravan park but I am wondering how you
reach a conclusion that "Like most road-kills I have examined this one
appeared to be deliberate with the driver veering out of the lane to crush its
victim." I don't see any evidence of cruelty in your story, just another
motor vehicle accident.
Isn't it obvious that a bird, dead on the road from collision
or any other cause, is likely to be crushed by some later vehicle entirely
independently, especially at night when one doesn't want to swerve out of the
way of something already dead on the road. People would indeed be lunatics to
deliberately veer out of their lane to crush something, especially for a
night-time active creature, on what you describe as a busy road. I've made dumb
attempts to hit foxes and cats out on bush roads that way. It has been pointed
out that such antics are unwise as it is not worth risking personal injury or
worse or car damage, just to knock off one feral.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From:
Alexandra Appleman <>
To:
<>
Date:
Friday, 20 October 2000 8:53
Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] kindness
and cruelty.
I was called to a caravan retail outlet on
busy Bowen Road (the main
arterial into Townsville, NQ) where a pair of
Bush Stone-curlews are
presently nesting. They picked a very good spot,
high fence giving safety
from predators, floodlit at night to attact
insects which are the main part
of their diet, their hosts were even
putting a bowl of water out for the
birds. There was only one problem:
the owners had to move a couple of
caravans and wanted to know whether
they could move the eggs. I advised
against it if at all possible and the
owners are going to try to manoeuver
the caravans around ther
birds.
On leaving the caravan outlet I saw a dead Stone-curlew just
beyond the
intersection and stopped to investigate. The bird was by the
side of the
road, head and body crushed and wings partly outstretched as
it had tried
to take flight. Like most road-kills I have examined this
one appeared to
be deliberate with the driver veering out of the lane to
crush its victim.
I don't know how you educate thrill-killers, but I
am buoyed that most
people show kniness and respect to native
wildlife.
Alex Appleman
Townsville, NQ
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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