Author Topic: A lovely afternoon with a sad ending - Nature can be brutal  (Read 4336 times)

Jac

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Generally children cope better than adults when faced with death - and keeping calm in such circumstances 'because of the children' helps adults too.


I had the misfortune to hit a fallow deer on the A380  Haldon Hill nr Exeter a few years ago. She ran across, jumped the crash barrier then stood still. I braked but sadly couldn't miss her. I couldn't swerve because the road was busy and the verge has a deep storm drain. As she was propelled down the road ahead of me and not back over the bonnet (Oh dear that bonnet again)I know I was braking really hard though still wonder if I could have done more. Poor thing, dead by the time I got to her but still haunts me.


You have my sympathies DA. I am surprised that pony bodies are left but at least it will then be dealt with naturally and be food for many other creatures eventually even for fungi and bacteria, better than our over sanitised methods of dealing with our own deaths.



 
« Last Edit: 21:45:06, 18/01/19 by Jac »
So many paths yet to walk, so little time left

richardh1905

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I was braking really hard though still wonder if I could have done more. Poor thing, dead by the time I got to her but still haunts me.



There's nothing you can do, Jac - deer move so fast and appear from nowhere. I've been unlucky enough to hit an adult red deer at 70mph - I didn't even have time to brake, and consider myself lucky to have survived unhurt, as the deer went over the bonnet and broke the windscreen before going over the roof. The Citroen AX I was driving was about 6" shorter after the crash - a complete write off. At least the deer had a quick death in this case.
WildAboutWalking - Join me on my walks through the wilder parts of Britain

ninthace

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Round here it is usually pheasants that are tired of life and suddenly decide to run out in front off you just as you are passing them.  Why they have to do it I have no idea but despite slowing down as best I can, I have clipped a couple in the last two years.  Unfortunately, both times it was too dangerous to stop to retrieve the body but I expect the foxes and crows appreciated the windfall.
My pet hate in this regard are the people who ignore the 40 limit signs on Dartmoor - no excuse for that and quite a few ponies and sheep are lost each year as a result.
Solvitur Ambulando

Jac

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Out with the group today we passed a field of ewes and lambs. All the ewes hightailed it to the other end of the field with lambs in tow leaving one unmoving,
very flat [/color]  
woolly object in the middle of the field. As the house was beside the field we knocked on the door and said we thought there was a lamb in trouble. The farmer dragged on his boots and trudged off across the large field. He bent over the little body, no movement, stroked it, no movement, chockled it under the chin - it stood up, stretched and zoomed off to find mum. When the farmer got back to the gate we thank him for humouring us and turning out to check - I'm not the farmer I just live in the house it was asleep. 
I love happy endings.



So many paths yet to walk, so little time left

 

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