Thank you for clarifying. And good to know that there were no joeys involved.
Ian.
Alpine vs Roos
- Thread starter bazzamac
- Start date
Ian.
Sigh. In the SE of Oz, feral deer have ALSO become a problem during my own lifetime. Complete failure of Gov't feral animal control, not helped by hunting groups wanting things to kill and animal welfare groups not wanting to cull pests. Inhumane to cull pests. I won't start...
We missed a big deer by mm in Victoria last year in the Scenic. Frightened the life out of me. We used to camp in the Grampians near where this deer burst out of the undergrowth. No deer then. I'm more than slightly annoyed about this nonsense. But, as I said, I won't start...
They bought wild wolves back into Yellowstone national park to control the deer which were out of control and ruining the eco-system. It seems to have worked too.
I suspect that near cities are there may be groups that will come out to an injured animal. In outer areas not many would care. Killing an injured animal with something like a wheel wrench is brutal and difficult. DSE used to turn out to kill an injured animal if there was a nearby work centre. I think it's unreasonable to expect too much of the driver. A triple zero call to police will put the problem on someone else.
I don't mind deer. People go funny over hunting them so their numbers don't worry us. Visitors love taking a good buck. Big mobs of roos about but when there's plenty of feed in the bush they don't eat on roadsides and crashes are down. The big mobs can be overwhelming on the road. The fast travelling roo that shoots out of the side is very hard to avoid. Sometimes it seems they know to pick expensive cars with difficult parts.
I don't mind deer. People go funny over hunting them so their numbers don't worry us. Visitors love taking a good buck. Big mobs of roos about but when there's plenty of feed in the bush they don't eat on roadsides and crashes are down. The big mobs can be overwhelming on the road. The fast travelling roo that shoots out of the side is very hard to avoid. Sometimes it seems they know to pick expensive cars with difficult parts.
Yes, quite a success story in many ways. Way back when (Zoology I at Adelaide Uni) the disaster of removing the pumas from the Kaibab Plateau in USA (Arizona I think) caused an explosion in deer numbers and environmental disaster.
I won't start on brumbies either...
I've grown to hate night driving. It is just too dangerous. Animals... Nearly hit a roo in the Renault 4CV once. Phew.
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2003
- Messages
- 492
One joy of 3 of my toys is that the exhausts are loud enough to act as "shoo roo" sound-sweeps for the wallabies that populate my local "C" roads in Tassie. (When I replace the extractor on my Djet, it'll get a short straight through "muffler" as well. At the moment, I'm very cautious with it & my wife's quiet Forester at night.)
That said, the exhausts don't work on possums, although their movements are less erratic.
If the worst happens, then I agree that blunt trauma is the best "on the spot" solution (I carry a single handed block splitter in each vehicle just in case.) We have raised an orphaned wombat (wombats are very sudden, like wallabies & the exhausts don't work on them either). That was from someone else's strike though - we checked the corpse of the mother. I have had two dramatic (& successful) daytime wombat dodges. These confirmed the joys of fitting 2-5 steering to RERs.
The closest I've come to a "big roo" incident was going to one of the 4CV register meets in NSW. Coming up to a T-junction (with the 4CVG motor thus quiet), we had two roos pass very closely across: one just behind & one just in front (skidding as it dodged us).
I've also had deer crossing when driving on Freeways in Pennsylvania years ago; mind you, our hire car was a bit bigger than the 4CVG.
On insurance, for those in Tasmania, I've been satisfied with RACT "Collector's car" insurance. Easy claim settlement & good prices. One only has to have one regular comprehensive insurance to get it (my wife's Forester in my case).
That said, the exhausts don't work on possums, although their movements are less erratic.
If the worst happens, then I agree that blunt trauma is the best "on the spot" solution (I carry a single handed block splitter in each vehicle just in case.) We have raised an orphaned wombat (wombats are very sudden, like wallabies & the exhausts don't work on them either). That was from someone else's strike though - we checked the corpse of the mother. I have had two dramatic (& successful) daytime wombat dodges. These confirmed the joys of fitting 2-5 steering to RERs.
The closest I've come to a "big roo" incident was going to one of the 4CV register meets in NSW. Coming up to a T-junction (with the 4CVG motor thus quiet), we had two roos pass very closely across: one just behind & one just in front (skidding as it dodged us).
I've also had deer crossing when driving on Freeways in Pennsylvania years ago; mind you, our hire car was a bit bigger than the 4CVG.
On insurance, for those in Tasmania, I've been satisfied with RACT "Collector's car" insurance. Easy claim settlement & good prices. One only has to have one regular comprehensive insurance to get it (my wife's Forester in my case).
I have none of my early stone age ancestor in me. Cannot kill them, I cannot even fish any more. I just don't have a killer instinct. I'll leave it up to others, yep selfish I guess.
Does you credit.
Old Peugeots are tough, but I'm sure our 406 is not as tough as the old 605 and all the rear-wheel drive models. Living 10km out of town, it's more a matter of when than if. We ride our luck - no form of roo bar fitted to anything except the Landcruiser.
Coming home late from a concert 6 or 7 years ago, a really big male suddenly appeared - not sure if it jumped the fence, or had been grazing on the side of the road. Anyway, despite me getting straight on the brakes, we hit it mid-hop probably still doing 60kmh. That caused it to slide across the bonnet, straight at the windscreen. We wife was frantically trying to get her seatbelt undone - neither of us wanted to be inside the car if he joined us!. He hit the windscreen with an almighty thump, but the windscreen held firm and he slid off on the passenger side.
We checked him, and he appeared to be stunned, so drove home. I came back 20 minutes later and concluded he was paralysed, so put him out of his misery. We have a few acres (and not just a 5 acre lawn) so went back with the ute in daylight and brought him home. It was winter, and we didn't want him just slowly decaying for weeks on the side of the road not far from home. It took two of us to lift him into the back of the ute (it's a single cab, so a full-length tray) - stretched out with his tail straight he was the full length of the ute tray.
Damage to the front of the 406 was minimal, but the bonnet still bears the scratches of those huge claws!
Coming home late from a concert 6 or 7 years ago, a really big male suddenly appeared - not sure if it jumped the fence, or had been grazing on the side of the road. Anyway, despite me getting straight on the brakes, we hit it mid-hop probably still doing 60kmh. That caused it to slide across the bonnet, straight at the windscreen. We wife was frantically trying to get her seatbelt undone - neither of us wanted to be inside the car if he joined us!. He hit the windscreen with an almighty thump, but the windscreen held firm and he slid off on the passenger side.
We checked him, and he appeared to be stunned, so drove home. I came back 20 minutes later and concluded he was paralysed, so put him out of his misery. We have a few acres (and not just a 5 acre lawn) so went back with the ute in daylight and brought him home. It was winter, and we didn't want him just slowly decaying for weeks on the side of the road not far from home. It took two of us to lift him into the back of the ute (it's a single cab, so a full-length tray) - stretched out with his tail straight he was the full length of the ute tray.
Damage to the front of the 406 was minimal, but the bonnet still bears the scratches of those huge claws!
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Large areas of Aus have deer (as well as Roos) - I have seen up to a group of five on my block in Central West NSW.
Does anyone have experience of electronic devices like shooroo and whether they work? Might fit to my Alpine once I get it back. Of course roo bars would be over the top in an Alpine.
The Casterton ambulance had a shooroo and the drivers thought it worked.
Me neither these days as I've gotten older... As a kid I was the one sent out with the chook and the axe, and my brother and I had ferrets we used to catch rabbits with - it was no thing to me as a teenager to cut their throat and take them home to strip and prepare for dinner!
These days - not so much... I came home to find a mortally injured wallaby in my front yard a couple of weeks ago. Poor thing had been hit by a car many days before and was still getting around, but the leg had gone necrotic. I called the wildlife rescue people and they helped me bundle it into a sack and they took it to the vet to be euthanised. I couldn't do it...
Roo bar, a lift kit and BF Goodrich muddies!
My uncle in WA had one come onto the front passenger seat with him when hit at 100kph, and started kicking and thrashing around... Put him in hospital for a while, he got pretty hurt in the time it took to stop from that speed and get out..
A Shell promotions guy who used to travel all over Aus setting up signage for the V8 Supercar assured me the Shoo Roo worked great and had eliminated his previous roo problems. At one event when he was telling me about the effectiveness of it, I asked him to switch it on to see if it cleared a path through all the spectators in the pits. He gave it a try and all the spectators blocking our path moved away like a parting of the sea!. We couldn’t stop laughing for about 10 mins as we drove through the pits.
Maybe it tells us something about V8 Supercars fans. It did not give off any sound and is supposed to work on producing some annoying frequency to some animals
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If you were insured with shannons .... you would probably be still on the phone waiting for someone to answer ...... They have been worse than useless that last few times I've "attempted" to ring them. Infact, for the first time in 20years one of my cars is insured elsewhere, as I simply couldn't get through on the phone to add it to my insurance policy. I tried serveral times over 3days before giving up. I'll be moving all my cars somewhere else eventually as I refuse to put up with that sort of crap.
On the topic of roo deterent devices - I've been investigating the idea of one of these as I sometimes (as least as possible) drive at dusk or night on a C-grade road in South Gippsland where there are many native animals. I see and far too many roos and wombats (koalas too) get hit and killed, and then just left on the road as a hazard for following motorists
I've decided not to proceed with a Shu Roo. A quick Google search shows divergent views. Some think they are marvelous, other say they are useless. I was convinced by this PhD research, which found they do not work.
Quoting from that research: "Field trials found the relative density of free-ranging eastern grey kangaroos also did not change in the presence of the Roo Guard. Field trials with the Shu Roo did not result in a reduction in the rate of kangaroo-vehicle collisions, suggesting that artificial sounds that use high or ultrasonic frequencies are not effective for deterring kangaroos."
It's a pity - because I hate seeing all the dead animals that I do and I wish there was a solution (beyond the solution that I follow, but others do not, which is to drive slowly at night when I know I'm in an area with high density of native animals).
While on this topic - I disagree with the advice you gave earlier, Russell, about calling 000 to, as you said, "put the problem on someone else". I understand that you are an emergency service worker and so would understand that 000 gets overloaded with non-emergency calls. If one is not capable of, or willing, to dispatch an injured native animal - not an easy or pleasant task at all - then there are the wildlife rescue services that I cited in an earlier post. Surely that is a better option than 000?
Ian.
Might work well on people but the research I quote above says not so on roos - even if it is annoying (to people and animals)