‘Be deer aware’ says new campaign
22 Sep 09
Today a new campaign was launched by a partnership, including Oxford University scientists, to highlight the danger posed by wild deer crossing Britain’s roads and help avoid potentially fatal road accidents involving deer.
DeerAware is an initiative led by the Highways Agency and The Deer Initiative that aims to raise public awareness of the up to 74,000 deer-vehicle collisions that occur every year in the UK. Many people are killed or injured in such collisions and many deer are either killed instantly or die later from injuries sustained in a collision.
The campaign begins today with a special launch event in Richmond Park.
‘It’s not just that the number of deer is increasing. We really need drivers to slow down and watch out, particularly when deer are more active - in autumn and spring, and at dawn and dusk,’ said Professor David Macdonald of Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), chair of the deer-vehicle awareness working group. ‘This autumn there is likely to be another rise in deer-vehicle collisions.’
Getting drivers to slow down and watch out when they see deer signs is the key to reducing the number and severity of road accidents involving deer. DeerAware aims to change driver behaviour and give more information to help local initiatives reduce collisions in collision ‘hotspots’ across the country.
Professor Macdonald said: ‘Today’s event brings together the media and other partners who we hope will use the DeerAware material to tackle the worst hotspots. As is so often the case in wildlife conservation, the campaign will be beneficial not only for deer but for people too – the quest for such win-win outcomes is at the heart of modern conservation.’
More information and advice is available on the Highways Agency website.
Image: fallow deer by Jiří Nedorost