There are nine dead cock pheasants on our lane this morning, all killed by cars (except one which the farmer thinks was probably killed in a fight). The trouble is that this time of the year cock pheasants are very territorial - one is 'in charge' of our garden and the area under the trees by the side of our house. He calls constantly for his 'girls' and they come running. Any intruder is fought off savagely and while these fights are happening both contestants are totally oblivious to anything going on around them. The fights can go on for hours if neither gives way.
Casualties - either in the fields after fights or on the roads after car deaths - are usually collected up by crows, or by buzzards or even by rooks and jackdaws. They soon disappear and are a valuable food source for other wildlife - foxes are round at night, and badgers. There is always something on the lookout for dead food around. This is probably the reason why so few dead birds are seen in the fields .
Rabbits, of course, are killed on the lane in their dozens. Several folk go round shooting them at evening and there are the organised shoots. Anyone who thinks this should be banned needs to remember that from the farmer's point of view ten rabbits eat as much valuable grass as one cow. Often folk who shoot or use ferrets to kill rabbits, remove the dead ones and take them up on to the moor, where they are valuable food for the buzzards (we have quite a lot round here) who prefer their food to be dead.
Apparently all this road kill provides some food too. People who run over deer (it happened recently further down our lane, where our neighbour did £4000 worth of damage to his car when he hit a deer) sometimes take the deer home, have it butchered and put it in the freeze r. And in some parts of America road kill which is suitable for human consumption has become known as 'highway pizza'. A new cookery book called 'A Feast before your very tires' has been published, which tells its readers how to skin a duck and de-bone an elk!
Over here in the UK there is becoming a movement for eating fox cub fricassee, badger or hedgehog casserole - can't say I fancy it myself. You may be interested to see the results of a National Road Death Survey, which was carried out by the Mammal Society in 2000-2001. I don't know how it can have achieved any kind of accuracy, but it should be a guide and it makes astonishing reading:
Suggested Annual Toll of Road Deaths. 2000-2001
Plus quite a large number of birds of prey - mostly
kestrel, tawny owl and barn owl.