"institutions increasingly use our system to manage their carcass data"

December 5, 2022 10:46 AM

"The California Roadkill Observation System uses a form-based data entry system to report carcasses resulting from wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC). Operating since 2009, it... contains 1,338 users and more than 54,000 observations of 424 species of ground-dwelling vertebrates and birds, making it one of the most successful examples of crowd-sourced roadkill and wildlife reporting." [source, via, cw: dead animals] See similar projects at GlobalRoadkill.net
posted by jessamyn (15 comments total)

One of the defining books of my childhood was Flattened Fauna: A Field Guide to Common Animals of Roads, Streets, and Highways. It introduced me to the idea that science can be completely earnest and off-the-wall at the same time.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 10:57 AM on December 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

Oh man, I never knew this existed! I dreamed of something like this back in grad school, with the idea that you could use it to hep train species habitat models, and also to identify sites where wildlife crossings were needed. Off to explore.
posted by agentofselection at 11:15 AM on December 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

I wonder if they keep all that data in one big flat table.
posted by 7segment at 11:45 AM on December 5, 2022 [5 favorites]

But is it safe to eat?
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:33 PM on December 5, 2022

Thanks, jessamyn! I'm a reflexive roadkill identifier, and did not know about the existence of roadkill reporting systems.

From the Road Ecology Center: Impact of COVID-19 on Traffic, Crashes, and Wildlife-Vehicle Collisions (Abstract). "A 34% reduction in [wildlife-vehicle conflict] would potentially equate to 10s of millions fewer vertebrates killed on US roadways during one month of traffic reduction, representing an unintentional conservation action unprecedented in modern times."
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:54 PM on December 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Finally, I can CROS the road chicken.
posted by zamboni at 1:56 PM on December 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

This is only the second post to be tagged with carcass. I gotta believe there have to be way more carcass-related posts. But do I believe it enough to undertake a project of identifying and tagging said posts? Only time will tell.
posted by ba at 2:09 PM on December 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

This is only the second post to be tagged with carcass.

Tag: Roadkill
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:15 PM on December 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is a great project, especially with having consistent reporting by the state patrol and other agencies. I wonder if there are any intentions to take it national?
posted by Dip Flash at 4:40 PM on December 5, 2022

Looks like the site is already set up to support multiple states! The is also the Maine Audubon Wildlife Road Watch
posted by rockindata at 5:35 PM on December 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Looks like the app is implemented in Drupal, based on this paper on the system. Developed and maintained by folks at the UC Davis Road Ecology Center.
posted by rockindata at 5:42 PM on December 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

If they did this on King Island the whole place would shut down.

Same for Tasmania, obviously, but I think they already did.
posted by pompomtom at 3:49 AM on December 6, 2022

When I was back in the States for the month of September, I knew I was back at the first flattened raccoon (along 294, about five minutes after leaving O’Hare), and lord, the number of dead animals I saw that month was easily more than I’ve seen along the roads in Japan in the last ten years.

Raccoons, obviously, but all sorts of squished animals, up to and including the first deer roadkill I’d ever seen, which is surprising, having grown up in Michigan. It’s not that Japan doesn’t have roadkill, it’s more that, living in a part of the country that’s actively been densely populated with humans for hundreds, if not thousands of years, there just aren’t that many larger animals around. Yes, of course, we’ve got rats, and there are crows everywhere, but it makes the national news when a boar comes down from the mountains looking for something to eat and bumps into humans. There are random animals in the burbs where I live, but I think I literally have enough fingers to count all the times I’ve seen them (civets, mostly, and one incredibly random raccoon in front of the house next door).

So, yeah, not a lot of roadkill around the greater Tokyo area, but more because there just aren’t that many “wild” places or animals, for that matter.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:50 PM on December 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

New Jersey feels like the roadkill capital of the world sometimes. I can't drive 2 miles from my house without seeing a dead animal on the road, and it's often a white-tailed deer. The older I get, the more depressing I find it.
posted by mollweide at 6:37 AM on December 7, 2022

New Jersey feels like the roadkill capital of the world sometimes.

"West Virginia continues to top the list of states where an individual driver is most likely to hit an animal, with a likelihood of 1 in 35. Montana (1 in 44 chance of a crash), South Dakota (1 in 51 chance), Michigan (1 in 51 chance of a crash) and Wisconsin (1 in 54) are at the top of the list. Rounding out the top 10 states where drivers are most likely to collide with an animal are Pennsylvania, Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota and Wyoming."

I drive in Pennsylvania, and, because I am a crouton-petter, I mutter an apology to roadkill when I pass it. I mutter a lot. And yes, absolutely agreed that with age has come a sense of sorrow for the lives cut short.
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:31 PM on December 9, 2022