Roadkill rates fall dramatically due to lockdown

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During the peak of the lockdowns in March and April, traffic on U.S. roads fell by as much as 73 percent. During that same period, fatal collisions with deer, elk, moose, bears, mountain lions, and other large wild animals fell by as much as 58 percent. Road deaths of dogs, sheep, and other domestic animals show a similar plunge.

"The longer it lasts, the more animals that would have died are not dying," says Fraser Shilling, co-director of the University of California, Davis Road Ecology Center and lead author of the report, which was released June 26.

If the current slowdown lingers and nationwide traffic remains on average 50 percent lower for a year, Shilling says, “then that’s 500 million vertebrates that aren’t killed on roads and highways. It's certainly not a small thing for wildlife.”

If the current traffic trend holds for a year, the report notes, 50 mountain lion deaths could be prevented in California.

These reductions in roadkill aren’t good only for wildlife: Across the country, an estimated 200 people die in car crashes with animals each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/06/decline-road-kill-pandemic-lockdown-traffic/

[Bradley 60,202]

Perez is safe. 

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And yet people of colour were still being murdered.

 

Imagine what would happen if people actually stayed home and stayed on lockdown? Even the cops. 

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Angela Cheng is safe.