Wednesday, September 22, 2010
A 'bad' marsupial time!
Today while driving to an Amish grocery store to get some Amish made cheeses, which is 22 miles from where I live, I counted 6 dead possum's and 2 dead raccoons [no pastoral exaggeration here]. Not a very good ratio [considering the short distance], and considering the fact the average possum lives 2-4yrs, their life longevity was greatly reduced. Now both raccoons and possums tend to do their foraging at night, which greatly increases their possibly of vehicular encounters because its a lot harder for people to avoid things in road at night than at day. I can't remember the article, but I recall just the other day reading about how 'night time' is needed for our survival, and I thought, well in the case of marsupial's it can be a definite 'death hazard.' I did something crazy and stopped a number of the possum kills [made sure no cars in sight] and noted that most of the possums had been been run over with head shots; which I'm guessing meant they played 'possum'[stopped rather than continuing] and the drivers were not able to avoid them. A couple of other thoughts came to mind, 1]first it might be wise for us to remember that 'our strongest asset can be our weakest link.' 2] I'm reminded that apostle Paul told us 'he gloried in his weaknesses,' for sometimes our strengths can mislead us into depending upon ourselves unwisely; 3] also it reminds me that in order for a strength to stay a strength it too needs to be constantly improved. Playing dead may work most of the time for possums, just as our strengths may more times than not get us out of a tough situation, but for these possums their strength was fatal. I'm supposing that there might also be some communal and national applications here to.
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Another factor for the number of roadkills is that fall is fast approaching and it is a busy time for man and beast alike before winter arrives.
ReplyDeleteYou're right fall is a season when roadkill greatly increases; I guess what struck me was the disproportionate number of possums as compared to other normal roadkill and the high ratio [kill/mileage] in that short stretch of land ... and it provided me something to blog about, though I don't want to take away the value of the lessons it reminded me of. Thanks for writing as always.
ReplyDeleteI was going to mention the same factor as Ed. I'm starting to see an increase in rodent road casualties, as I guess they're more concerned with hunkering down for the winter.
ReplyDeleteCheers.