A study in Alogonquin Park and another National Park in BC, suggests that road salt is to blame for wildlife road kills.
The Toronto Star reports that,
The most recent data show Canada’s wildlife roadkill has doubled in the past decade.
Most of the victims are big-game animals: 500 moose annually in Newfoundland; 7,000 deer, moose, caribou and black bears in Quebec. Ontario averages more than 10,000 wildlife-vehicle collisions a year, and such collisions injure more than 200 people. The safety council reports that there is a collision every 38 minutes in Ontario. The temporary, debilitating intoxication due to salt ingestion is a major factor…
Entire Article
I am not sure what to think of this. The article says that salt ‘intoxication’ may occur in wildlife and does not clearly indicate which animals were studied (birds vs. moose) and to what extent the animals were ‘intoxicated’. I have seen deer, moose, and bears ravage salt licks with no apparent effects.
The study mentions birds and I wonder if the study focused more on this kind of wildlife. This would make more physiological sense to me because of their smaller bodies.
The article throws in this line which bothers me,
Hunting near roads has long been popular in much of Canada, and researchers say that wild animals, stupefied by road salt, are much more vulnerable than would normally be the case.
Where and I why is this line here? It has NO bearing on this study. Are they suggesting hunters capitalize on ‘doped up’ moose and deer? Any national or provincial park I have been in does not allow hunting. Hunting near major roads and highways is not allowed so how can it be popular?
To be honest, I am slightly skeptical about this whole thing. I think road salt is a minor blip on the list of factors that lead to road kills. I think the list would look like:
- unaware drivers
- unaware wildlife to the speed of oncoming traffic
- unaware drivers
- increase in the amount of vehicles on roads
- unaware drivers
- increase in wildlife numbers
- unaware drivers
- maybe road salt
Bill Anderson
Muskoka Outdoors
