Back to the OP, I have seen a coyote look both ways before crossing the street. This was a two-lane major surface road with truck traffic that abutted a cornfield. The coyote looked in both directions before crossing and disappearing among the stalks. Coyotes are known to be smart and adaptable to urban life and you rarely see them as roadkill.
Armadillos (none-banded variety, at least) are one of those animals with a startle reflex that consists mainly of jumping straight up. Again, not helpful if they are crossing a road at the time and a vehicle is closing in on them. Even if you try to steer so the wheels pass on either side of the beastie, you’re likely to hear a big “Thump!”
In the '80s, I had a tongue-in-cheek book, “Flattened Fauna: A Field Guide to Common Animals of Roads, Streets, and Highways.” It was a gift from my college girlfriend (who appreciated my twisted sense of humor), and had silhouette-style illustrations of what various sorts of animals (raccoons, possums, etc.) looked like when found as roadkill.
I still remember the section in the book on on armadillos; it said (paraphrasing): “The armadillo has two defense mechanisms: most of us know about their ability to curl up into an armored ball, but they are also capable of jumping straight up, eighteen inches or so. Neither of these defense mechanisms is particularly effective against an oncoming car.”
I was once driving, following a car ahead, but at a decent distance, when a cobra (probably a Cape Cobra - Naja nivea) crossed the road.
Fortunately it managed to go under the car intact, but it immediately extended it’s hood and challenged me, in my car.
I safely moved around it, and hopefully it went on to live a full life.
OTOH, I had an incident where a human attempted suicide under my car - thank god he survived, but it was probably only his ineptitude that saved him, I was driving at around 100Km/h with a one ton load in my truck. He got away with extensive bruising, and minor head wounds. Poor guy had just been fired, so in a really shit state of mind.
Yes. Or large tusked elephants are poached, small tusked elephants survive to breed.
Some animals adopt very well to urban environments. There are lots of foxes around here. Shy, small, grey critters seen at dusk and dawn. Many people don’t recognize them as foxes, because we tend to think of them as disney-ish, red/white and kinda cute. Seagulls are a menace, especially when they push their young out of the nest. Ducks seem to thrive as well: [anecdote] I was standing, waiting to cross the street and notice a drake stand a few feet away. When traffic stopped he started waddling over.
Moose (meese?) used to cause quite a lot of very serious traffic accidents. Northern European moose are a bit bigger than North American, reaching 2000 lbs and almost a foot taller. Hitting one at 60 mph will often prove fatal. Yet in spite of a population of close to 500K in an area the size of California, there are fewer than ten fatalities per year. It used to be a lot worse, and anecdata (research is ongoing), seems to show that moose have learned to stay away from paved roads.
Highly debatable. I say this as a hunter and life-long obsessive nature observer / learner.
Wild animals don’t have ER’s, but they have quite amazing recovery abilities, according to vets who work on wild animals. Many animals with a fair bit of damage live for quite awhile, feeding and fending for themselves, and healing. Deer and other animals are not seldomly found with completely healed shot and other injuries. I have personally taken wildfowl that had a completely fractured, re-fused femur and no outward sign of disability etc. etc.
Survival is also much more likely in human-altered environs, such as most places around roads; fields where there’s more and more energy-dense food than in any same-size natural environ, low to non-existent large predator populations etc.
There’s a range of car-animal contacts that fit between losing a tuft of fur and dying. A swipe that leaves the back end bruised is very painful, and very survivable. A prime learning opportunity.
You have that backwards. The American (Alaskan) moose is bigger than the Eurasian moose.
Why aren’t people better at living together in peace? They’ve had like thousands of years to practice!
Yesterday I saw a cat using the pedestrian underpass beneath the tracks at Kew Gardens station.
Actual underpasses (as well as overpasses) for wild animals are a thing. Of course, animals also use pedestrian routes all the time, but the first-mentioned are built where there are none of the latter.
Train vs camel showing this behavior:
Squirrels are another example of hard-wired behavior that works when avoiding predators but may be disastrous with cars. Squirrels are prey for pretty much everything and they dodge and weave erractically when being chased, changing direction, doubling back, changing again. Ok, that might confuse a fox but if you stop and double back in front of an approaching car, you’re roadkill.
Of any warm blooded critter, I would venture that the Koala is the dumbest thing you will see on a road. In the last couple of weeks I have encountered three simply sauntering along the road. They won’t even bother to look at an approaching car, and just keep sauntering along. They are not exactly constructed for moving on the ground, and usually only do so to move from one tree to the next once a day or so. Usually at dawn or dusk, but not always. They look ridiculous.
A diet of gum leaves is extraordinarily low in energy, and they seem to have adapted to use as little as possible to power their brains.