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08 August 2006

On my trip to Emerald , I counted some things.[More:]I drove 420k in 3h 20m at an average speed of 139.99 kph (rental cars are cool)
On the road, I saw:
194 dead kangaroos
3 live kangaroos
1 live calf
1 dead wedge-tailed eagle
2 live wedge-tailed eagles
1 live echidna (which very nearly wasn't alive)
1 live unidentifed (but very large - I first thought it was a small Emu until it flew away) bird (which very nearly wasn't alive - thank god for ABS)
Didn't count them, but I estimate at least 2 dead mammals for every dead kangaroo
17 cars going my way (passed them all - note average speed above)
5 road trains going the other way
Didn't count cars going the other way, but there were lots more than those going my way
Listened to Dire Straits, The Eagles, Eric Clapton and George Thorogood (the iTrip is the best invention ever)

As you may have guessed, it was a very boring trip - after the first 5k, I had seen all the scenery there was to see and, if I didn't know better, I could have sworn I was going around in circles.
post by: dg at: 05:30 | 6 comments
Gawd. It must've been a boring trip for you to have done so much counting.

As someone who studies and is concerned with the plight of "urban wildlife" (which I guess to me means any animals who "get in humanity's way," whether in an urban/suburban setting or not), I'm appalled at the amount of roadkill you saw. I always knew 'roos had it worse in Oz than deer do in N. America, but, Wow.

How many roadkill do you reckon you saw per kilometre?
posted by shane 08 August | 08:05
Wait, nevermind, you posted your kilometres. That's better than 2/kilometre, including the echidna or not. Whoa. I suppose I would've run over the echidna if it were past saving. Gah.
posted by shane 08 August | 08:08
at an average speed of 139.99 kph
Let me guess. 0 speed cameras. 0 cops. Close? Lucky bastard. I got my last speeding ticket on a "remote" QLD highway.

Didn't count cars going the other way, but there were lots more than those going my way.
That has to tell you something right there.

I also make that about one dead roo every 1.3 miles.

Did you ever get the cytrix thing sorted out?

/on preview - what shane said
posted by GeckoDundee 08 August | 08:09
BTW, shane, I think he means he nearly ran over the echidna, not that it was near death.
posted by GeckoDundee 08 August | 08:14
Wow, that's a really high roadkill average. We used to keep a list on long boring roadtrips (how to raise your children to be ghouls, part one) and I think, on I-95 between Charleston and Baltimore, to be something like one dead animal every 6 - 7 miles. I wonder why there are so many more in Australia - maybe there are more animals? Maybe the ones in the US get cleared off the roads faster? Strange.
posted by mygothlaundry 08 August | 11:21
GeckoDundee is right - the echidna was waddling across the road when I came around a bend at ~140k and just managed to avoid it, as with the unidentified bird. I think the high number is due to the road trains that frequent that highway at night - they would hardly even notice hitting a kangaroo and, in any case, would not be able to avoid them. In some places, it was almost like driving through some bizarre video game, dodging left and right to avoid the corpses.

mygothlaundry, the body count is not typical of Australian highways, but this is a very remote area, being out in the "great bugger-all" as it is sometimes known, so I guess wildlife is more plentiful than in more populated areas and cars are less common.

The "other mammals" were mostly bunnies I'm afraid but, once smaller animals have been hit by a car or truck at those speeds, identification while driving past becomes almost impossible.

no, I never got a workable solution to the citrix issue and am stuck with connection-via-dial-up for the time being, which is a nightmare of slowness.
posted by dg 08 August | 16:06
dogs + soccer fan = animal cruelty || My wife just got back from holiday.... (Pun related word game)

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