SAVING TASMANIA’S WILDLIFE

One thing I noticed, driving around Tasmania, was that there is definitely less roadkill. Still plenty of it, and still the most I have seen anywhere in the world, but definitely less.

Across the State, including Flinders and King Islands, the vegetation has been cut back on both sides of most roads by about 2 metres. This apparently is designed to give the animals and the humans a better chance of seeing each other in time to avoid a collision.

In some areas they are experimenting with buzz producing transmitters which are attached to the bush side of every three or four roadposts. They are set off by the vibration of a car on the road. In effect, they are similar to those little horn looking things what you stick on your bumper bar to ward off the kangaroos, which you have to replace every five minutes when they fall off, and which may or may not work, but how would you know.

Another labour intensive exercise is to attach little spinning and light emitting thingies to power lines where there is a lot of bird activity. This is designed specially to assist larger birds of prey to miss the power lines. Each thingie is dropped over the power line by a hydro worker with a long stick. A co-worker looks down, watching for tiger snakes.

Also, I was told, in many regional areas people are encouraged to carry gloves and shovel, and, where safe, to push the road kill back off the road into the verges. Scavengers such as Tasmanian Devils and birds of prey can then devour the roadside menu offerings in much safer surroundings. It takes some time for a wedge tailed eagle to leave its meal, given they are unable to retract their claws. So they have to wriggle free of the meal, or take it with them, to avoid being road kill too.

In many places, the speed limit between dusk and dawn is 45kph. Irritating perhaps, but it seems good practice to me to just avoid driving at night time. On more major roads, there are now lots of signs warning drivers to be alert to wildlife. There seems to be a growing number of people who say the driving speeds in Tasmania are just too high for the road conditions; I am definitely one of those.

Michael Monaghan

November 2023