Was heading homewards, about 6:30pm yesterday. Road straight and
on a slight downhill, but not fast due to narrowness and lots of
hazards to navigate in the small space between the hedges.
Road is slightly wider but mucky as it passes a working farm.
There's a car some distance behind me; not sure if it's closing
the gap at all, but it too is going slowly, as befits the road.
Ahead, something is crossing the road. Small animal. If it wasn't
moving, it could easily be taken for a bit of inanimate debris
(of which there is plenty). I slow further.
As I approach, critter stops dead in front of me. It's a hedgehog,
and its whole defence against the big scary thing approaching
is to stop right there. In the middle of the road.
I could steer round. But that leaves hedgehog curled up defensively
as the car approaches. And if it doesn't move, the driver won't
see there's anything alive. I stop to try and avoid one more
pointless roadkill. Hedgehog won't move, so I nudge it in the
direction it had been going. Repeat. Repeat.
Car no longer approaching. It's stopped at the farm I'd just passed.
I continue on my way, with new insight into the problems our
hedgehogs have on the roads.
--
not me guv