Roadkill - France

[krisdelta]

I've done a fair bit of driving in France, it occured to me as I returned home recently that compared to the amount of roadkill I see in the UK (squirrels, pigeons, deer, foxes etc..) I think I saw one unlucky magpie or similar in my 800 miles of driving on French roads.

What's going on? Has France selectively bred smarter wildlife? Has it all been destroyed by agriculture or are there just constantly patroling vans picking up the evidence? Insights and conspiracy theories all welcome.

[spreadsheet monkey]

All wildlife were on a 6 week Grande Vacance, mandated by their trade union.

They were all snoozing on a beach in La Rochelle.

[GroundEffect]

EmailAddress said:

Perhaps avoiding confrontation is ingrained.

It's amazing that France earned this reputation of being weak/soft/yielding but in the 19th century and earlier they were anything but.

[MikeGTi]

spreadsheet monkey said:

All wildlife were on a 6 week Grande Vacance, mandated by their trade union.

They were all snoozing on a beach in La Rochelle.

[Moodyman1]

For a similar population, France has 2.5 times the total kms of roads, spread out across a much larger space. Hence, hugely reduced vehicle density per km.

Another possibility is the French countryside generally has fewer trees and hedgerows to maximise agricultural space. This additional greenery (in the UK) creates a whole ecosystem which supports other species. So, the French could also have less wildlife to kill.

[Scrump]

The French appreciate fresh ingredients in their cooking.

[Silvanus]

Moodyman1 said:

For a similar population, France has 2.5 times the total kms of roads, spread out across a much larger space. Hence, hugely reduced vehicle density per km.

Another possibility is the French countryside generally has fewer trees and hedgerows to maximise agricultural space. This additional greenery (in the UK) creates a whole ecosystem which supports other species. So, the French could also have less wildlife to kill.

The second paragraph isn't correct. After Malta the UK and Ireland have the lowest tree cover of any country in Europe, way behind France. We are the lowest country in Europe for biodiversity and we rank as one of the most nature depleted countries in the world.

As mentioned, vehicle density quite probably plays a big part. Also we have very few mitigation methods in place to prevent wildlife deaths on our roads. Some other European countries lead the way on this.