The Toll of the Automobile
A century's worth . . .
Seen any raccoons lately?
If you’ve driven Iowa roads in the last couple of months, they’ve been obvious. Sadly, it’s often the carcasses you see on or along the highways. When darkness falls and Momma and babies go on the prowl in search of an evening meal, they’re vulnerable to the perils of high-speed traffic.
It’s not just ‘coons that die on the roads, however. Deer, opossums, squirrels, and other critters regularly get killed on Iowa’s nearly 115,000 miles of roads. State Farm Insurance estimates that Iowa drivers have a one in 58 chance of hitting an animal – primarily deer - on the road. But that’s probably a low estimate, given the number of smaller animals who are run over without damaging the vehicle enough to warrant an insurance claim.
We might think the problem stems from high-speed driving. But a report in the January 16, 1925, journal Science proves that road-kills are nothing new. “The Toll of the Automobile,” by Dayton Stoner, documents the dead animals he and his wife saw on a 632-mile round trip from Iowa City to Iowa Lakeside Laboratory on West Okoboji Lake in June and July of 1924. The tally reached 225 fatalities, ranging from turtles to barnyard chickens to ground squirrels.
As automobiles were becoming increasingly common by the 1920s, Stoner and some other biologists feared the impact on wildlife. “ . . . the death-dealing qualities of the motor car are making serious inroads on our native mammals, birds, and other forms of animal life,” Stoner declared.
He reached that gloomy conclusion despite the fact that his trip was almost entirely on gravel roads, where top speeds seldom exceeded 25 miles per hour. Also, white-tailed deer had not yet repopulated the state, as they eventually did in the last half of the 20th century.
What’s more, the Stoners did not report any raccoons – probably because the couple (and most other drivers) traveled mainly in the daytime, when raccoons are less active. ‘Coons also might be alert and agile enough to avoid a vehicle traveling at 25 miles per hour, versus the 50+ mph speed of today’s typical travelers.
Interestingly, the Stoners identified more than 50 red-headed woodpeckers that had been killed. Why so many of one species? Stoner speculated that the behavior of red-heads to feed on roadside insects and waste grain – and to hesitate too long before flushing at the approach of a vehicle – put them in peril.
The National Audubon Society also suggests that vehicle mortality, along with loss of open woodland and savannah habitat, have led to a decline in red-headed woodpecker populations.
The Stoners counted at least 30 dead snakes of various species. That shouldn’t be a surprise, given the propensity of some snakes to sun themselves on roads – and the inclination of some people to intentionally run over snakes they encounter. Many herpetologists believe that characteristic of the reptiles, along with the insensitivity of humans, has contributed to declines in snake numbers.
Earlier this summer, my wife, Margaret, and I decided to compare our observations on a similar 600-mile trip to Iowa’s Loess Hills, then back home to Elkader. Although we didn’t keep records as carefully as the Stoners did a century ago – and we traveled mainly on paved roads and at much faster speeds – we did notice some similarities. For example, cottontail rabbits, squirrels, and thirteen-lined ground squirrels still seem suicidal when it comes to crossing the road. Ground hogs, too.
We also tallied live animals – the most exciting of which was a bald eagle (rare in 1924) feeding on a road-killed deer (also rare a century ago.) Our list also included wild turkey – another species who was absent in 1924.
Striped skunk? Both the 1924 and 2024 lists noted one. Then and now, drivers probably do their best to avoid the perfume kittens.
As much as we enjoy seeing wildlife and strive to avoid collisions, we’ll remain increasingly vigilant in our travels with the approach of fall and the white-tailed deer rutting season. There are several roads where we always are on the alert. But during the rut, a deer can pop up almost anywhere, any time of day. And when you see one, be ready for the second, or third animal.
Have modern roads and vehicles decimated our wildlife populations, as the Science article predicted? Well, we still see plenty of individual critters DOR (dead on the road), but when driving across Iowa’s expanses of weedless corn and soybean fields, without even fencerows for cover, it’s pretty obvious that habitat loss – rather than Fords or Chevys or Toyotas – is the biggest culprit.
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The decline of red-headed woodpeckers over my lifetime is one of the saddest things to me. In my memory, there would be at least one every mile on gravel roads. Hit turtles seem tragic, and once I saw a beaver, to my regret. Thanks for the history lesson. Also, Suzanna de Baca shares her perspective on the 1924 trip from a post two years ago come October. https://suzannadebaca.substack.com/p/dead-skunk-in-the-middle-of-the-road?utm_source=publication-search
Those are good observations, as always. Thanks