Open Mike: Wildlife in the Half-Light

We've had the better part of a week here of what is normally thought of as midsummer weather. Hotter than 80°F (~27°C) day after day. I hate to be so picky, but it's actually kind of hard on me—it takes me a while to adjust to warm weather every spring.

But that's nothing like the effect the warm weather has had on the deer. We had a very mild winter—I only had to have my driveway plowed once—and I've seen more deer this spring than ever. The other day I drove with my neighbor Ilene up to a dogsitter's house on a remote hillside, with large meadows all around, and we saw several huge herds of deer. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say we saw 50 deer on that short drive, in three groups. The largest herd probably had 30 individuals in it. And if that weren't enough, in another meadow we encountered a vast flock (called a "rafter") of wild turkeys—no fewer than 30 and probably more. I've never seen that many wild turkeys at one time before.

Wonder what kind of hawk that is
Driving, I started a red-tailed hawk (wingspan 3.4 to 4.8 feet) who flew right in front of the car and then turned away from me to settle in some trees, giving me a brief but full-on view of his red tail. I thought, "I wonder what kind of bird that is—I could probably look it up because of that red tail." And then I thought, "oh. Red tail." I did confirm it from online pictures, later, and a red-tailed hawk seems to be what she/he was.

One more...the other night at dusk, I was returning from a walk with Butters (Canis lupus familiaris) and, ahead of us, a large fox ambled nonchalantly out of the woods at the edge of the road, looked up, saw us, froze, then turned around and slunk back into the brush. I peered into the woods on the bank for a long time, because I knew he was there somewhere watching us. But I didn't catch a glimpse of him. My eyes are not as good as a hawk's, and it was getting dark. That's actually not the reason I couldn't see him. The real reason is that he didn't want to be seen. They're good at hiding.

Look
A little tip—at any time near dusk, with woods and trees nearby, don't drive casually. Concentrate hard on keeping your eyes on the road at every moment. Don't look at sights and don't avert your eyes to anything inside the car. Stay on the lookout. Sunrise and sunset, especially in spring and fall, is when you'll most likely encounter a deer. And if you do see one, slow way down immediately—deer aren't solitary animals, and if you see one there are most likely a few more nearby. That was my problem the one time I actually made contact with a deer (neither deer nor car was affected, but it was a close call). It was my own fault.

We're in the habit of driving extremely casually, with our eyes on the road ahead of us a surprisingly small percentage of the time*. If you become aware of it, you'll realize that you're not watching the road all that much. I'm probably worse than average because I'm always looking around for pictures.

The top five States for animals involved in car crashes are:

1. West Virginia
2. Montana
3. South Dakota
4. Michigan
5. Wisconsin

There are an estimated 1.5 to 2.1 million car-animal crashes every year in the United States, with 60,000 human injuries and 440 deaths, about three times as many people as are killed by falling trees, ten times as many as are killed bitten by sharks, and sixteen times as many as are killed by lightning. It's believed that at least 1 million deer are killed annually by vehicles. With all that carnage going on, it pays to watch carefully during peak times.

Eventually the problem will take care of itself—in another ten or twenty thousand years, the deer will evolve to learn how to evade cars. Most of us can't afford to wait that long, however.

Mike

*I learned this from a nonfiction book called Traffic, by Tom Vanderbilt, a fascinating book I thoroughly enjoyed. Amazon says the book is a bestseller, but that is not possible—I've personally recommended it about eighty times, and, so far, not one single person has ever reported back to me that they bought or read it. I don't know why I'm even mentioning it right now.  :-)

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Steve Rosenblum: "Oh yeah, the deer are a huge driving risk here in Michigan. My brother-in-law once rolled his car down an embankment in Montana trying to avoid hitting an elk. He ended up upside down hanging from his seat belt, but had only minor injuries. The general recommendation is to not swerve to avoid hitting an animal, that is what mainly causes the human deaths. If you can't stop in time to avoid it you should hit the animal, which is hard for many people to contemplate. Honestly, I would be at least as worried about the flock of wild turkeys you saw. Wild turkeys are extremely aggressive. They are thugs!"

Bruce Hedge: "Here in Central Victoria, Australia, an Eastern Grey kangaroo can weigh up to 200 pounds and make a large mess of your vehicle. They're also very unpredictable, changing direction and jumping high. Then there are wombats, otherwise known as 'hairy rocks,' 'cos if you're unfortunate enough to hit one, your wheel alignment (and vehicle) is history. As is the wombat. Deer and feral pigs are on the increase, too, but we don't have moose, which I imagine would be awful! The simplest solution is to slow down to 60–70 km per hour at dusk on quiet country roads and keep very alert. I haven't hit any of the above for ten years now. Touch wood."

Tom Passin: "Re 'A little tip—at any time near dusk, with woods and trees nearby, don't drive casually.' Here's a really valuable tip for driving near and after dusk. Turn your windshield visor down as low as you can to cut out as much light from the sky as possible. The sky may look fairly dark, but the total amount of light from the whole sky around dusk is enough to keep your pupils from expanding enough and your night vision from kicking in. Keep the visor down until the sky is really inky black."

Chris Kern: "Re 'in another ten or twenty thousand years, the deer will evolve to learn how to evade cars.' The urban deer in the small Maryland city where I live apparently are way ahead of the curve. My wife and I repeatedly have observed deer looking in both directions before crossing a busy through street on our corner lot, then waiting for any oncoming cars to pass before making their way across the street. On several occasions we have watched as a doe walked out in the middle of the street in order to block traffic until her fawns had crossed behind her. And, no, I am not making this up. Deer are much smarter than they are reputed to be and the urban deer around these parts have become surprisingly skillful at adapting to their only remaining predator: the automobile."

ASW: "When it comes to animal collisions, the advice not to swerve is generally good for animals up to deer size. If you, like myself and our esteemed TOP CEO, are one of the few Americans who still drives a reasonably sized automobile (I believe they're called...cars), you really don't want to hit an elk or moose. If you've never seen one, imagine 500+ lbs. (elk) or 1000+ lbs. (moose) of densely muscled flesh perched high atop four spindly legs. Hit that at even moderate speed and your car chops off the legs and the body comes through the windshield into all of your personal space. No thanks. I slow down in wildlife danger conditions (e.g., dawn/dusk), just like I slow down for adverse weather conditions.

"Of course, if you drive a more typical American SUV/truck, lifted halfway to heaven and with more horsepower than a WWII battleship, then keep on truckin' and show those pesky varmints that you're built Ford Tough, Like a Rock, or whatever else the commercials tell you."

Mike Plews: "Four years ago my commuter car was an '07 Honda CRV. I was going to see just how many miles I could get out of it and was up to 350,000 when I got T-boned by a buck on my way to work. He hit me square in the drivers side door, no warning, just a deafening bang, antlers in the front seat and a deer rolling over the hood. The deer ran into a corn field, presumably to expire. The Honda which I loved was totaled. I got pretty badly cut up but it could have been much worse. Used insurance to put a down payment on a Kia Sorento which appears to be as well built as the Honda and holds all my grandkids.

"Current wildlife interaction is a cardinal who stands on our kitchens window sill and keeps me company while I make morning coffee. Possum in the garage, raccoons on the deck, coyotes down the hill, even a mountain lion across the road; life in the country."

Ronny Nilsen: "I bought Traffic based on your recommendation! Bought it years ago. Great book!"

Mike replies: Ah, that's music to my ears. Now I can't say that everyone ignored me.

Comments

[Ernest Zarate]

Deer. A few decades ago (interesting how personal time units used for reference shift from weeks and months as infants, to years for a huge chunk of our lives, and then shifting to decades…), I lived around Lynchburg VA. Born, raised, and having spent virtually all of my 67 years in California, primarily in urban settings, deer were not an issue when driving, save for driving on remote mountain roads.

One early summer Virginia morning, I was tooling down an empty country road, enjoying the relative cool before the heat and humidity would suffocate me, when out of nowhere (ok, tall bushes and trees right next to this bucolic road), a couple of deer leaped right in front of me! Somehow, I managed to both avoid hitting the deer as well as stay on the road. It was a startlement to be sure.

Here in our residential area of Sacramento, we don’t see deer too often but wild turkey abound. They wander around, sticking to side streets, slightly annoyed at traffic, and given to some level of unpredictable meandering (though no animal beats the squirrel for unpredictable road behavior).

Keep your eyes on the road, your hand upon the wheel, as Jim Morrison sang.

[hugh crawford]

Might be a Cooper’s Hawk. We have lots of both here and the Cooper’s have the red tails. Confusing I know. The Cooper’s are more likely to be flying between trees.

https://www.wildbirdscoop.com/coopers-hawk-vs-red-tailed-hawk.html#:~:text=Also%2C%20the%20Red%2DTailed%20hawk,than%20a%20Red%2DTailed%20Hawk.

[Zyni]

This is not my story but I have permission to tell it.

Long long ago I (not me Zyni, story I) was a child being driven in car on roads near to home, late in the evening. A loud thump, much braking: we had hit one of the many deer which thrived there. Well, what to do? Not leave it in the road to be crushed but, well, deer is venison and we (story we) knew gamekeepers who knew people who could turn dead deer into venison. So, get out of car, pick up deer after much effort and place in back of estate car (I think estate car is what in US is called station wagon?). Set off to house to find nice gamekeeper, looking forward to some nice venison.

Seconds pass.

Suddenly a thing becomes clear, especially to I and siblings in back seat: deer is not dead, is not in fact even badly injured, just was perhaps concussed. Now is awake, and suddenly car is full of large annoyed wild animal looming and snorting at children in back seat. Large wild animal which very much would like not to be in back of estate car please, at once now. Large wild animal with horns.

What to do? Sensible choice is made: stop. Walk around car before animal can harm children too badly (perhaps one or two children are wounded, perhaps mortally, is not serious). Open boot. Deer decides children are not as nutritious as it had hoped, catapults itself from car, vanishes into undergrowth, does not look back.

Fifty years on, the children (other than the mortally wounded ones, although perhaps even they also) still remember this event. Perhaps the deer's children also do.

[Jeff]

You’d be much more likely to pay attention to the road, and to ALL potential hazards, had you ever been a (competent) motorcyclist.

[DavidB]

I often arise before dawn to drive out to a nearby lake for sunrise photography. The elk are on the move at that time of day so it is critical to keep your eyes roaming from one side of the road to the other.

A few months ago I was doing this drive in the fog. The headlights from a car approaching from the other direction created a beautiful silhouette of a large elk in the road. No way to get a photograph but the image will stay with me for a long time.

[Mark Sampson]

Red-tailed hawks tend to soar high and keep their eyes out for field mice, thus they prefer open country. Cooper's hawks are smaller and fly among the trees; they prey upon small birds, so watch your feeder.
The deer have always been a problem for drivers in the Finger Lakes. Most of my friends who live there have a story or two...
It might seem to be a rural/suburban issue, yet there were deer and foxes in the urban area of Alexandria, VA, where I lived for some years.

[John]

Both my wife and I had deer jumping in front of us and being hit. In both cases, the deer got up and ran on. The advice is to never swerve for them, not only because you may get hurt but also because the insurance company will hold you responsible for the damage unless you can prove there was a deer involved. Sad, but true.

[Joseph Kashi]

Moose-car collisions are sufficiently common here in Alaska that the official report of collision form that must be submitted to the state includes as a separate type-of-collision category "moose" in addition to the usual types of collisions, e.g., intersection, head-on, etc.

Hitting a 1,200+ pound moose is usually fatal for the moose, mostly due to broken legs, and commonly results in severe injuries to the occupants of vehicles, especially smaller cars.

[Nick]

You're unintentionally maligning sharks here! Your number would be correct for 10 times the number of shark *bites* not deaths. In 2022 there was 1 fatal shark attack in USA. There were 5 worldwide. As an ocean and shark lover I thought this needed to be cleared up!

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/yearly-worldwide-summary/

[Fixed now! Thanks for the correction Nick. --Mike]

[ROBERT BARON]

One night many years ago in rural Texas I was driving a Chevy Impala full of family members when I came up over a hill and saw a large hog on the road ahead. I started to brake and the car started to slide and I saw a car coming toward us in the opposite lane.

I quickly decided it was better the hog than us and pushed the accelerator to the floor, killing the hog and moving the Chevy's radiator back almost into the engine.

The State Trooper who came out to assist us said if the hog had been a prize winner people would have come out from all over to claim ownership and seek damages but as it was we would not likely ever know who it belonged to.

[Kevin Crosado]

I bought Traffic from one of the local real (actual bricks & mortar) bookshops back when it first came out – so, sorry, no kickback. It's an excellent book. Mind you, one of my earlier incarnations worked in the transport industry for 20 years, so I'm probably a little biased.

[David Scott]

Just bought Traffic based on your recommendation! Sounds right up my alley.

You might find this book interesting - it’s about the built world and the impact of “design assumptions” (described as “data”) on the humans who have to live in it: Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez. I found it very informative and with broader implications even beyond the impact on women. Recommended.

[Joel Rittvo]

Dusk is rough. My eyes adjust a good bit slower than the changing light. I try to avoid dusk driving when I can. Deer fear...

[Dave Levingston]

I guess I now must tell at least one of my deer stories. I’ve killed two of what I call “giant wood rats,” both of them with my trusty Dodge Dakota that I drove for more than 300,000 miles.

The worst story happened before dawn on a rural two-lane road in western Nebraska. (Is that doubly redundant?) I saw what I assumed was a dead animal in the road. I moved to straddle it. Just as I reached the sleeping deer it woke up and stood up. Took out the radiator. Before dawn. On a rural road in western Nebraska. On Sunday morning. Three thousand dollars in damage.

Of course, the truck was not drivable. But I did have cell service. AAA was trying to find a tow truck in Omaha. I told them I didn’t think that was going to work, since I was about 350 miles from there.

Eventually they found someone to get me and haul me to Alliance, Nebraska. That’s where I was headed, with plans to photograph Carhenge at dawn. I was stranded there for 3 days while a local garage got parts and got the truck drivable, though far from fully repaired. I did manage to rent a car and got out to Carhenge. The photo worked out very well and has been one of my most popular photos.

But I’m still in favor of exterminating most of those giant wood rats.

[Simon]

If people drove with more care then there would be vastly fewer collisions, whether into wildlife, other vehicles, humans or inanimate objects. All of these are almost always clearly visible to the driver but far too often they're either driving too fast, distracted and/or impaired by alcohol, prescription or other drugs.

The long history of marketing vehicles based on their top speed, horsepower and size while ignoring that the road is not your personal racetrack is causes millions of deaths and injuries every year.

The slower you go the more you will see and take in the world around you. Cycling is far better than driving but walking (and stopping to *really* look and listen) is when you'll notice things for the first time that you will have passed many times before, maybe even every day for years.

[Luke]

The deer are more numerous and braver.

A friend here in the near-Atlanta suburbs was walking through her neighborhood and found her path blocked by a group of deer. She tried to shoo them away, but she said the big one refused to move and just showed her the "middle hoof".

[Joe]

Oh, I've had that book as an ePub on my iPad for years. Loved it -- if I remember right.

[Jon Maxim]

I can certainly vouch for the dangers of hitting deer in Michigan and West Virginia. Two weeks ago while driving from Toronto to Miami we counted 5 dead deer all of them in West Virginia I79/77. Five years ago driving from Toronto to Chicago at this time of year I counted 13, all but one in Michigan I69. In my 50 years of driving in Ontario (which is also notorious for deer accidents) I have only seen one, which happened to a car right in front of us. Had to swerve at 70mph to miss the car and stopped on the shoulder. I was shaking and my wife was crying.