There is something out there, and what an Indiana State University professor and his students are finding is surprising them. Dale Sparks…and a team of students are evaluating the quality of Interstate 70 as a small mammal habitat from the Indiana state line to Marshall, Ill.
“Biologists have often considered roadways as useless or worse for wildlife,” Sparks said. “The traditional view is that these areas are too badly damaged to serve as effective habitat. However, any birdwatcher and many bored drivers know that hawks spend a lot of time sitting on the roadside staring at the ditches, medians and highway triangles, so there must be something out there.”…
Just like the hawks, Sparks said they are finding mice and other rodents that call the medians, triangles and roadsides home.
“Everything in the preliminary data says medians are great habitats,” Sparks said. On the roadsides and in the triangles, they have found white-footed mice, deer mice and voles. In the medians, they have found white-footed mice, deer mice and shrews, including one type of shrew that is on the Indiana watch list. That same shrew is not on the Illinois watch list where the crew is working.
“Certainly from the preliminary data, it’s a denser, more diverse community in the median than the triangles and ditches,” he said.
This is delightful and basic research. It’s all-encompassing – in the Darwinian tradition.
When I drive to town for my weekend grocery shop, there’s a stretch of county road where my wife and I always keep tabs on the number of hawks and ravens atop utility poles. More raptors? More carrion eaters? More critters living down below.
I also seem to notice a lot of red-tailed hawks dead on the roadside. Other predators are probably effectively blocked from a highway median, lest they also become roadkill, so it’s not surprising that rodents find safe haven there.
This would seem to reinforce the worry that highways are profound barriers to most wildlife. Yet another instance of humans saying “Life, get out of my f—ing way!”
Of course, I have to wonder how many readers/commenters ever leave the basement or their cubicle – and get outdoors?
http://tinyurl.com/399djo
Thank god for birds of prey!
#3 – John mentioned this on yesterday’s Tech5 podcast. He thinks NYC is worse!
It took a “Scientific Investigation” to figure this out? It just goes to show how much effort it takes to disprove the idiotic assumptions scientists make and assert as truth.
Back a few years ago, highway construction was routed around an eagle tree, at the cost of many million dollars. The eagles abandoned that tree and relocated to another tree next to the highway.
Some friends who owned a heavy equipment construction company told of a eagle tree next to their equipment yard; the eagles would spend hours watching the heavy equipment moving around (and would use the heat raising off the yard to assist when they took flight). I think they also liked an uninterrupted view of the area to watch for ravens, crows, and goshawks, all threats to the eggs and nestlings.
Hmmm… I always reckoned they just liked the road kill.
Maybe that’s the explanation for the couple billion pounds of tire dust that gets put on our roads every year.
Rats eat it!
Yup, #5 – you got it right. Stick with your priests and politicians.
Why waste time improving knowledge?
I read some years ago how red-tail hawks and falcons now see the forested median strip of the NY State Thruway from NYC to Albany as a “100 mile long bird feeder” because rodent populations manage to get there while the ground-dwelling predators that seek them can’t cross the highway without being squished.
Isn’t it interesting how some species like bird raptors, coyotes, bears et al now seem to have found a survival niche right in the middle of the modern habitats of humans? Check out the “Pale Male” story of the nesting hawks on NYC 5th Avenue buildings, who go after rats and other birds in Central Park. (Apparently these guys go out and kill other bird species, too).
This must be hard on avian-headed humans, who focus themselves on the bird predation from pet cats…which must be stopped immediately!.
Who woulda thunk that Nature could turn out to be so complicated?
#10 – “Who woulda thunk that Nature could turn out to be so complicated?”
I never woulda’ thought it was complicated attall !
Want a couple of cute Mt. lion cubs ? Neighbor found 2 of ’em playing tag in her front yard. Our city is next to a large state park..city is around 95-100k population. Coyotes are common and quite a few folks complain about large deer herds eating their lawns now and again..ahh – life.
#9 – You need to get off your jump to conclusion mat. I never said anything about priests and politicians.
I’m just find it interesting it takes the wasted effort of a massive scientific study to find what the “supposubly” less educated can conclude using simple observation.
I just don’t see the value in having scientific proclamations dictate to me an obvious truth when I can GO OUTSIDE, look around, and see the evidence myself. (Life THRIVES just about anywhere including the places we humans have so called tarnished with our massive footprint.)
However, if you need scientific dogma to dictate and establish truth to you, you go with that.
#11 you’re right it isn’t that complicated, but it sure is hard to deal with. I’ve got coyotes and bears sniffing around here, too. Hopefully the kitty cats can see them in time to run up a tree.
Mountain lions, though, would be a new thing in this area (er, rather “new” in this day and age). I don’t suppose human kids could get away from those, even if they could climb trees quickly.
Deer? I can’t grow a single plant or bush here without them disappearing in about two days.
#12, Benji,
The point #9 god was making is that science requires proof. Religion doesn’t. Yes, yes, I know you can stick your head out the door and tell us what your “god” hath wrought. But science doesn’t work that way.
Too often casual observation fails to tell the true extent of something. Sure, you could have a pair of spotted owls nesting in your yard. So therefore you feel that spotted owls are very common. Yet, those could be the only spotted owls within 50 miles in any direction. Or they might even be the last spotted owl mating pair.
So what is the importance of rodents living in a median? Damned if I know, I’m not a wild life biologist so I won’t even hazard a guess. Does it mean we should put rodentcide down to keep the foxes and coyotes from crossing the road? Maybe. Does it mean electrical wires should be rodent proofed? Possible.
Its simple. Just watch the birds in the mirror after you drive by. They go out on to the road to get the insects that bounce off the windshield.