Out here in Texas, people shoot those fucking feral pigs from helicopters. The main reason we can’t shoot them from cars is because we might hit a house or pedestrian.
I’ve been attacked by them twice. Flatlined 2 fucking feral pigs 0.
I’ve never hit a deer, but when I was in AZ, I refused to drive in Flagstaff in the winter because I was afraid of the imported elk. Hitting a deer would just total my car, an elk was big enough to slide up the hood and land up in my lap.
Around 7-8 years ago, I lived about three miles down a dirt/country-sytle road that was literally lined with thickets of older trees/undergrowth with tree’s canopies totally overhanging road for most of the way. Lots of deer and turkey, etc around us year-round, fwiw.
I was driving home from work one dark night and, being ever vigilant of deer jumping into road, I saw a pair of reflective eyes (a deer) within the thick unnderbrush. I slowed waaaay down and kept eyes out for deer to jump out. Just as I passed, at maybe 10-15 mph, where deer was known to be, it jumped right out in front of me in a split-second. No chance to brake vehicle or avoid collision, and deer’s head hit the metal bumper/grill of my ol’ beater Dodge truck I was driving that day. Stopped and checked on deer - was convulsing all over and eyes were rolled back, etc (obvious traumatic brain injury) so I euthanized deer ASAP with knife through throat (as humanely/quickly as I could even though it brought ears to my eyes aas I did it) Put heavy/older whitetaildoe into back of truck and went on home to deal with it.
I got the Game Warden on phone right away (since off-season and no permit, etc for possession) and explained what happened and was there a chance this large ‘carcass’ could be donated to a food bank or such despite it not beinng a ‘harvested legally’ deer. Did not take long for Warden to come get carcass and verify area of injury and my explanation of possession (ie not shot or trapped or whatever) and guy eagerly took deer to provide venison for those who needed it. He made it clear he was thankful for calling him (“Did the right thing for everyone involved!”)
Lots of other deer have jumped out by me and it seems that the headlights ‘freeze’ them in place and when they are overwhelmed by their ‘instinct for survival’ (run away!), they seem to more often than not jump towards the lights rather than away from them. Both my sons hit deer on same road during dark hours over period of a few years, but those der always ran off into the bush before they could get out to evaluate damage(s) to deer/vehicle. Luckily, I had gotten them both older, metal-fendered vehicles (Buicks and/or Mopars) to learn to handle/drive with, so no vehicular damage was done. I shudder at expense of repairing a newer-model vehicle (with ‘crumple areas’) that has such a deer-hit upon its frontal area.
Makes me wonder what a deer thinks the headlights actually are. The sun coming up?
In terms of animals that I actually do let rule the road, when driving through Yellowstone, the bison win. They may not be any smarter than deer, but they don’t have to be. The full grown males were about as high as my mini-van. It seemed that way at the time anyway.
From the back seat my 3-year son piped up, “don’t hurt them Mommy”. I was thinking, “don’t hurt them” :eek: They took their sweet time crossing and I let them.
When we first moved into our current house 20 years ago, we made a game of stopping and counting all of the deer in a field near the house. The highest I remember seeing at one time was 43. I also remember saying “I hope counting the deer never gets old.”
It got old. I’ve hit 5 over the years.
My (now-deceased) wife’s father was a long-haul truck driver who would regulalry tell me stories of his experiences of animals getting in his way ‘out of nowhere’. Deer were the most common to his ‘accidents’, for the most part. Antelope tended to act similar to deer but were so small that it was rare for him to even stop to check for damage(s) to vehicle/trailer. Quite a few times with deer (both mulies and whitetails), he had to go get radiator repair or such done before he could resume his journey X-country safely enough.
The worst he ever had to deal with was when two turkey-vultures came through his right-side windshield at same time. Both were still alive and kicking in-cab after the impact and he was attacked repeatedly by both birds as he did his best to safely get off road and stop. Needed a notable number of stitches on arms/head/neck areas with extensive wound-care afterwards. Told me he felt lucky to have even survived their assualts! Had the scars to prove the story plus the HIghway patrol’s report which was worded in a seriously-sarcasticly funny way. Company he was driving for gave him a sarcasticly humorous ‘Driver of Year’ award, too, LOL.
We live in a turkey infested area as well. Anyone that believes that turkey are incapable of flight has never seen one zip past their windshield. They’re a lot scarier than deer.
“Integral Time/Space Coordinates”
We got wild horses out here. Bigger and move fucking slower, because they don’t give a shit.
Introduces a whole new level of excitement to riding a motorcycle.
A friends best friend was killed on the PA turnpike by a deer coming up over the hood and ripping half the roof off. The wife was in the hospital for months. They were on the way home from dropping off their freshman daughter at college.
On the NY thruway my friend and I have our motorcycles on a flat trailer. Giant fucking rodent jumped out, went 1/2 way right into the gap between the truck and trailer. Cut it’s front legs off, the carcass cartwheeled up and totaled my friends bike. My bike was covered in blood, shit and entrails.
Because it was his truck, trailer and bike the insurance wouldn’t pay. Had it been my bike damaged they would have.
I was meaning the buzzard, aka turkey vulture. And, yeah, ‘regular’ wild turkey ccan easily fly, but not far. I’ve seen them fly upwards quite a wys hen going to toost for the night, Never seen any turkey fly from one point to a distant point, but it may be possible, I admit. They have a high weight -v- lift ratio (compared to most other ‘distance-flying’ birds) making it strenuos to maintain altitude, I believe.
Going off-topic and while speaking of turkey, I once had a turkey mama/hen and its 8 or 9 turklings (babies old enough to run along mama easily) follow me in my smaller SUV in same area I mentioned above where I hit a deer. I had stopped on dirt road to take a few pics of the family of turkey that was on roadside, and as I drove away slowly, the mama followed me at a quick run. The babes kept up behind her, closely and in perfect lineup. Being ever curious to see how far they would follow, I kept speed down to a near-crawl for TWO MILES. Kept up with me no problem at all. I finally sped up fast so as to lose them farther than closer to the State Highway to keep them away from traffic. They’d probably followed me onto highway itself had I not done so. Wife totally disbelieved me until I showed her the pics. Weird and cool at same time.
Maybe 5-6 years ago, there was a woman (who was the front-desk ‘clerk’ at a Seminole County, OK Police Dept) who was driving to work in dark pre-dawn hours and had a loose ‘tamed’ horse jump across her path. Horse came through windshield, instantly killing her by decap. Horse injured bad enough that it wass euthanized ASAP. Witness says horse was just standing in barrow pit of two-lane highway and suddenly leapt into car’s path for whatever reason. Horses can move fast when they want, of course, so be careful, Gatopescado 
I’ve not seen turkeys fly, but I have seen them stop traffic when Tom Turkey decided he wanted to pick up some fine hens in the middle of the street.
When I lived in Eastern NC, a friend of mine refused to drive the half-mile between my house and hers because she almost hit a deer one night. Somebody had to drive in front of her as a shield.
Seven or eight years ago, I was driving to work in the wee dark hours along the country roads that lead from our home in the boonies. I came up to, but didn’t hit, a congregation of deer standing in my lane. Just hanging out. Not moving. Probably thinking about flipping me off.
Out of deference to the nearby residents, I didn’t lay on my horn - instead I decided to drive around them. Naturally, *just *as I was accelerating, the tardy relative they were waiting for decided to run in front of my van from the left. I saw it roll over, then it got up and they all ran away. And there I was, on a dark road with no headlights.
Actually, I did have my high beams, so at the risk of blinding anyone else on the road, I turned around and went home. The dealer said there was $800 in damage to my van, but it was all plastic bits, so we just taped up the various pieces, replaced the headlights, and drove that van for another 3 or 4 years.
Stoopit deer.