Do I care too much?

[Fridgemagnetman]

The rest of the time I picked up live caterpillars attempting to cross the bike path without getting killed.

I do that, plus frogs.

Walked into the road to be a crossing guard before.

Country road,not the I4

 

[Peter Morrison]

Mia, you did the right thing. Nobody can argue the value of kindness and reverence to innocent animals. The way I see it, good deeds are noticed by God. They earn you VIP upgrades in heaven. It's one of those extra credit situations that makes you a good person. Good deeds are virtues.

 

[Mia]

On a separate note, maybe just move the bodies to the side instead of burying them? Carcasses are food to a variety of creatures and burying them makes them less accessible to hungry tummys.

I usually do both, depending on their state of decomposition. If the bodies of the creatures are intact I move them to the side. If they are completely squashed I bury them out of respect.

 

[blue_bird]

The world needs more people like you Mia.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

The world needs more people like you Mia.

Not too many, we'd be overrun by frogs

 

[Fino]

I have a mini freakout every time I see dead animals on the streets, sometimes torn apart by being repeatedly run over.

 

[oregano]

Rabbits here seem especially susceptible to being roadkill. For as fast as they can be against known predators, they don't seem to react quite the same towards automobiles. Too familiar with people? Go figure.

I've had a couple cases personally where a wild rabbit in the middle of a road will hear/see my car coming and squat down in the road by instinct, and then go clunk off the car's underchassis. These rabbits evolved in a grassland prairie environment and if a predator showed up they would hide in the grass to try to escape detection. Sadly that doesn't work with cars.

But I wouldn't recommend burying them because as @NothingToSeeHere noted they are food to other critters, mainly birds of prey in my area, and those critters survive by eating smaller critters killed by other critters (such as human critters) and the birds of prey need to eat too.

At one point I lived in a beat up old RV and kept having to trap and kill mice, and I simply left the bodies outside in front of the door and they were gone by morning.

There's a species of hawk here that is on the endangered species list and the hawk is a predatory carrion (dead critter) eater, so my grandpa told me whenever I have to kill a mouse to leave it outside for the swainson hawks and tree owls and vultures. You can't poison them because the poison will kill the birds too. I would simply move the dead critters to the side of the trail.

As for human critters, they can be an especially nasty type of critter, they will kill an elk, chop the head off, then leave the carcass to rot. In the Nevada desert elk are managed by locals buying hunt permits from the state, and it is not only illegal but extremely offensive to not preserve and eat an elk you kill. But people will come in from other states and hunt elk for trophy heads. The same mentality is at work with a bicyclist running over small critters for lulz.

 

[Progster]

I once ran over a snake that crossed over the road in front of me by accident, and that made me feel very bad. People here don't like snakes and will deliberately run over them, even though the snake might not be venomous or isn't in an area where it is a danger to people. I think this is wrong: every creature has the right to exist just as I do. Every creature has its place in the ecological chain and seeking to eliminate an animal from this chain will have consequences. In the case of snakes, the rat and mouse population, or that of other small creatures will increase, and people don't want that, either.

 

[Mary Terry]

Caring people will save the planet. Uncaring people are determined to exploit and ruin it for their own personal gain.

 

[AloneNotLonely]

Unless you are an expert, seriously do not touch any toads and especially not any brightly coloured frogs. I don''t think I need to go further on that. Perhaps try to scare them off the road or bring thick gloves.

 

[Mia]

Creatures I moved today to the other side of the bike path:

6 Woolly bear caterpillars, which become the Isabella tiger moth.



Spotted tiger moth caterpillar:

Which becomes the spotted tiger moth:

American dagger moth caterpillar which becomes the dagger moth:

One Monarch caterpillar which becomes a Monarch butterfly.

Tersa Sphinx caterpillar:

Which becomes the Tersa Sphinx Moth:

 

[tree]

That reminds me.
Last week I moved one of these caterpillars off the road.
He was about 3 inches long.

This is the first year I have known what they are called.
I have only seen 5 of them this year.

 

[Streetwise]

do I care too much when I pick up tiny pieces of plastic and plastic to hold together beer cans and other plastic or open the window for flying creatures ,Is pushing food up to the fence line so its not trampled pointless

 

[Mia]

My husband figured out a way not to kill fruit flies. He places a small saucepan without its cover on the counter and puts in a piece of lemon or banana. Once the fruit flies are on the the fruit, he covers the pot with it's lid and puts it outside, removing the lid so they can fly away. We do this twice in a day, rather than use fruit fly traps with vinegar that kill them.

 

[Kirsty]

Creatures I moved today to the other side of the bike path:

6 Woolly bear caterpillars, which become the Isabella tiger moth.

View attachment 57096 View attachment 57097

Spotted tiger moth caterpillar:

Which becomes the spotted tiger moth:

American dagger moth caterpillar which becomes the dagger moth:

One Monarch caterpillar which becomes a Monarch butterfly.

Tersa Sphinx caterpillar:

Which becomes the Tersa Sphinx Moth:

Oooft! They give me the shivers!

 

[Mars26]

You are great person but most people are insensitive.

 

[Streetwise]

Wonder if my perception of the world and the creatures and people in it that leads me to dislike/hate some of the human race.

Two days ago I spent my 38 kilometer cycling trip picking up small dead creatures from the bike path and burying them. A sparrow, a frog, a snake, a mouse, a vole. People just left their bodies there after they ran over them with their bikes. Which shows such disrespect to these creatures, as if they were nothing at all.

The rest of the time I picked up live caterpillars attempting to cross the bike path without getting killed. Eighteen that day, almost all of which were wooly bear and moth larvae that had hatched and were stuck on the white dividing line in the middle, seemingly not knowing which way to go. I moved them to the other sides and gently placed them on plants.

Several times people shouted at me, to get out of the way, as they didn't want to slow down. And didn't care what they killed and just kept going. I'm at a loss here, can someone explain why people would value speed on their bicycles over living creatures? I thought people who cycled care about the natural environment.

Try to think of humans this way was there a time when you didn’t help animals?. I still find it very strange !how people that are younger than me ,now seem to be almost a completely different being ,it’s almost like the rest of the natural world is an abomination to them,then there are people like Greta Thunberg , to me you treat animals better than a lot of rescue organisations

 

[Mia]

Try to think of humans this way was there a time when you didn’t help animals?

No, not that I remember. I never went through the phase that some children do, stepping on ants or that sort of thing. Respected them, the world is their home, were just short term visitors. They seem to belong here more than we do, they actually live outside and have adapted to all of it.

 

[Rectify]

What makes this sort of thing you describe really stupid to me... and one of the reasons why I often refer to random people as "idiots"... is that in by far the vast majority of cases, it's not that they dont care about the creatures on the ground. It's that THEY DONT EVEN NOTICE.

There is a lot I don't notice but other animals I do. You're right, many people don't. When I walk around I'm aware of the birds that cross my path and stuff. But sometimes I see birds scrambling to get out of the way for other people because the people don't notice them and don't think that they even deserve their notice.

I'm torn on the insect issue. I don't want to kill them. However I'm deathly scared of a few types. I usually get someone else to help me with those. Remove them I mean. If possible.

 

[Rectify]

Rabbits here seem especially susceptible to being roadkill. For as fast as they can be against known predators, they don't seem to react quite the same towards automobiles. Too familiar with people? Go figure.

Sometimes I wonder if they get a shock when they see cars coming or some other reaction that causes them to stop. I recently 'nearly' ran over a possum's tail. He ran to the side but then stopped with his tail out on the road still. Anyway it was a near miss that made me think even more about how I drive - especially at night which I rarely do and don't like.