"Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." -Mary Oliver
Click the image to read Project Roadkill, an ongoing work.
When I began Project Roadkill, I expected photographing to be a long, slow process. After all, I would have to locate roadkill first and with the pandemic, my search area was limited.
I took photos of a 18 dead animals in less than a week. All within a 5 mile radius.
Before embarking on this project, I'd never paid much attention to roadkill. They were a splatter on the road, hardly more emotional than a speed bump. But in actively searching for roadkill, I realized the overwhelming extent of animal deaths on man-made roads. Witnessing the death of a killdeer chick in real life amplified it all-- watching the moment an animal goes from being alive to dead is so much worse than just seeing the aftermath.
After that, Project Roadkill took on a new sense of urgency. In the United States alone, one animal becomes roadkill every 26 seconds. This doesn't even include raccoons, skunks and other small animals that are usually unreported.
Factor them in, and the number becomes unbearable.
But I don't want to focus on numbers. When reduced to a number, a life becomes an insignificance. It becomes all too easy to fall into insensitivity, overwhelmed by the sheer size of the issue.
I try to look into their eyes, because I don't know what else to do. They have eyes, faces, bodies, like us. They have hearts, and as you'll read in the photo story, emotions driven by more than instinct. Every creature found pain, despair, panic in the moments leading to the collision. Some did not die immediately; the killdeer chick's beak fluttered open and shut three times as it took its last breaths. Others crawled to the side of the road, where they slowly succumbed.
There are a variety of ways to reduce collisions: speed bumps, roads painted to look like speed bumps, underpasses built to facilitate wildlife movement, new technologies that use sensors and will alert drivers of live animal crossings, driving slower and alertly.
One thing we can all do: drive slowly!! And pay attention.
Roads slice habitats into fragments, create a havoc of noise and pollution, disturb deer and elk, and increase wildlife mortality. Look into the faces of these creatures and try to understand. These are small steps, but important all the same.