Over at the Fox Project Bristol (Face Book) I just noted how statistical analysis shows what the true number of road kill foxes might be.
How that is done is explained there but I thought that I would check a couple of the estimation sites and see what figure they come up based on the 61 known deaths in BBG area:
"If 61 badgers are reported killed, the true total is estimated to be between 122 and 183 deaths, as reported collisions often only represent one-third to one-half of actual incidents. The higher total accounts for unrecorded deaths, where animals crawl away to die, and the lack of comprehensive reporting."
Sadly, I have to say that the lower estimate is what I would expect BUT that is me just wanting a low overall figure.
It used to be estimated that 100,000 badgers died on UK roads every year. Then it went down to 60,000 and the new"guess without much work" is 50,000. I cannot see that as accurate. We lost over 300,000 badgers through the unscientific cull and no one knows how many killed illegally and that includes by "badgermen" hired by farmers on the quiet.In some areas badgers are extinct and none could be found to fill cull quotas and bTB free badgers were killed to fill quotas -I will hold back any comment.
I suspect that badger road deaths (genuine ones not staged 'road deaths' to sell to taxidermists) number in the low thousands by now. It shows just how out of touch and reliant on dogma and just repeating easily remembered figures national bodies are -and local groups repeat the same old figures.
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