ROAD KILL

Just about every day -- weather permitting -- I am on the local roads, getting my daily exercise. I have a measured distance of 2.5 miles which I walk or jog, or do a combination of both. It depends on how I feel & other factors, such as heat, humidity & if a dog is chasing me or not.

I use my stop watch to record my times & I keep a log book of each days data: my weight, number of sit-ups I've done & the time it took me to traverse my course.

Earlier in the Spring, while on my daily jaunts, I kept my eyes open for baby turtles on the road. This year I collected almost a dozen turtle hatching's. Most all of them have now been released, after keeping them a few weeks to "head start" them.

Along with the turtles I picked up, I would also come across a few dead turtles as well. Not all the little guys were lucky enough for me to come along at the right moment. Sometimes the traffic beat me to the turtles.

There is a seasonality to reptiles & amphibians & their travels, causing them to intersect with the highways. Not so with mammals; there is no season to finding road remains of squirrels, raccoons, possums & beavers dead on the local roads. [Yes ... beaver. Those nature videos make them appear to be native only to some clear mountain ponds & streams. Not so. The giant rats are in every local body of H2O.]

As the weather has gotten warmer, I am starting to see more & more dead snakes on the roads. Many times -- being cold blooded creatures -- snakes will venture onto roads at night, where the pavement is still warm from the daytime heat. WHAM !! Motor vehicle = pancake.

One species of snake I find D.O.A., all too often, is the MUD SNAKE. This is a large snake -- about three foot long for a good size adult -- with a shinny black skin & a BRIGHT red belly color. Really, a B-E-A-utiful snake.

The Mud Snake is a water loving snake & with the large number of creeks, streams & bayous locally, the conditions are ideal for this snake, which feeds on salamanders, crayfish & small fish.

I usually find the dead snakes in the early morning hours, indicating they were on the roads at night. It is unfortunate these reptiles are killed in this manner. I always hope it is just a matter of the snake -- or any animal -- being in the wrong place, at the wrong time & not some Arkansas joy rider getting their jollies from seeing what they can run over & kill with their car.

I enjoy my daily exercise most, when I return home without having found/seen something newly dead on the roads. There is enough "road kill" as it is. The car /truck ALWAYS wins.