With the advent of European culture in North
America the wildlife distribution prevalent 500 years ago began to change rapidly.
The accounts of early European explorers and settlers are consistent in reporting
a wide variety of species and large numbers of animals. In early colonial Virginia
deer and turkey were so common that they were regarded as a tiresome foodstuff.
Both Amerindians and Europeans harvested the game, fish, and waterfowl to meet
their food needs. However with the advent of widening European settlement, the
clearing of the land for agriculture, and the introduction of an extensive economic
system based upon the fur trade, the original distributions and populations of
species began to change. Some animals such as the Carolina Parakeet and Passenger
Pigeon became extinct throughout their range and other species such as bison and
elk which were once common east of the Mississippi retreated into pocket populations
west of the Mississippi.
The effect of settlement upon wildlife west of the Appalachian mountains was felt more slowly than along the Altantic coastal plain, but by 1800 and in the decades following intensive settlement in the Tennessee and Ohio valleys brought the same kinds of change seen a century earlier east of the Blue Ridge. By the end of the Nineteenth century, the direct assault upon wildlife and the indirect assault through the degredation of habitat was all but complete. By 1900 the black bear was seldom seen outside of the Smoky Mountains and the Cherokee National Forest; the brook trout had virtually disappeared from the western Appalachians, white-tailed deer and the wild turkey were scarce in most areas and non-existent in many areas.
During the twentieth century with the introduction of conservation programs, the direct management of game by wildlife law enforcement agencies, and the support of funds from taxes upon firearms and fishing equipment, the status of certain species of wildlife began to change in Tennessee and across America. While the numbers of waterfowl in America have continued to decline from their historic highs, other species such as the whitetailed deer and the wild turkey have made impressive comebacks. In 1970 the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency estimated that there were about 50,000 whitetailed deer statewide in Tennessee. The hunting harvest of these animals was just a few thousand animals. A quarter century later in 1995, the state deer herd was estimated to be just under a million animals and the annual hunter harvest more than 144,000 animals.
In fact, so successful has been the restoration program of the whitetailed deer that in many areas, particularly suburbs and urban areas of the state, deer are not only common but have reached nuisance status. On the Sewanee campus of the University of the South deer are frequently seen in yards, walking down the streets, and on some occasions even feeding in the main quadrangle beside the University chapel. These animals have become a local management problem because of their steadily increasing numbers, the impracticality of culling them by hunting, and because of their browsing effect on valued ornamental shrubbery. They have also become a safety problem; in 1994-95 there were 16 vehicular accidents involving deer in the Sewanee area. Nationally in 1995 about 125 people lost their lives in automobile accidents involving deer, making deer the "deadliest" of all North American wildlife.
Highway encounters with deer and other animals is a serious if mostly unrecognized national problem. The collision between a vehicle and a large animal is always dangerous to people and almost always fatal to the animal. Another aspect of the problem, is the large attrition of animals as "road kills." Several factors have affected the rising numbers of road kills seen today. When most rural roads were unpaved and when cars were of simpler design, rural driving speeds were generally lower. Over the last two decades there has been a complex revolution in American driving. There are more cars on the roads. The roads have been improved. The cars have better suspension, steering and braking systems. New headlights allow cars to drive much faster at night. Today, even pickup trucks have handling characteristics superior to cars of the 1960's.
The high speeds of vehicles, habitat fragmentation, the imbalances in some wild populations which lead to unusual migrations or risky food acquisition behaviors all create conditions where increased numbers of road kills can occur. The paved road thus must be regarded as a critical edge zone in the human encounter with wildlife just as it is an important waterway in the wateshed system. For many people their closest encounters with any wild animal comes in a blurred flash of fur under their headlights and a dull thump under their car. For others, the only wildlife they regularly see is the grotesquely distorted forms of animals slain along the roads.
In the spring of 1995, I had almost daily occasion to drive between 30 and 50 miles on the rural roads of the Franklin County area. I began to keep a simple chart of the types of animals I observed on the roads. I was not surprised to find that the number one roadkill was the opossum, but I was surprised to find myself observing an average of three fresh opossum kills per day or about 100 per month during the period; in the spring of 1996, the opossum count had risen to about 5 per day. I was also surprised at the total number of species to be found on the road. Although the car-animal encounter is an important factor in the overall balance of wildlife, the roadkill list also suggests the wildlife diversity found along the roads.
Roadkill sampler [Note: These are images of dead animals. This page requires a scriptable browser such as Netscape 2.x.]