Northern B.C. is in the middle of its peak time for moose-vehicle collisions.
That makes it prime time for UNBC researcher Roy Rea鈥檚 talk Friday on the matter.
鈥淢ost collisions happen at night, so when there is less visibility. It鈥檚 harder for drivers to see and animals tend to be more active.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got this black road and theres a black background and you鈥檝e got this big, dark brown moose that jumps up on the road and it鈥檚 hard to see until youre right on top of it,鈥� says Rea, adding much of the talk will focus on his current research llooking into world-wide accident trends and answering why the time of year for moose collisions shifts from region to region.
While time of day is a constant factor, the seasonal spikes vary and Rea aims to answer why.
In the prairies and eastern United States, the peak is in the mid-summer and Europe, Rea says, is a mixed bag. In B.C. and Alaska, the peak is in the winter 鈥� December and January 鈥� with another uptick in June and July to coincide with the movement of pregnant cows.
In mountainous regions, like northern B.C., Rea says his working theory is that elevational migration comes in to play.
鈥淢oose move up to high elevations in the summer time, so that theyre away from the roads,鈥� he says, but come winter, moose move to lower ground out of deep snowpack.
鈥淲e tend to build our roads along river bottoms and valley bottoms,鈥� says Rea, where moose feed on willows and dogwoods. 鈥淚t just happens that the roads are bisecting those habitats.鈥�
According to the Wildlife Collision Prevention Program, moose represent seven per cent of all wildlife collisions in B.C., and often lead to human death given their massive size. An adult male moose can weigh up to 500 kilograms.
Rea, a senior laboratory instructor at UNBC, previously used data from 2000 to 2005 to determine collision hotspots in northern B.C.
Though his study was just published this summer, Rea has been working with the Ministry of Transportation for years to apply his recommendations, like removing outdated road signs and making sure the bright yellow road signs are in the right spots.
Rea found a correlation of collisions and the accumulation of salt on the sides of the road, an attractive draw for wildlife.
In areas where weve covered the licks with rocks, or weve put a fence around a lick, or with pine beetle trees, the animals decrease their visitations to those areas.
鈥淚t鈥檚 working,鈥� says Rea of the strategy, which also includes taking care to cut roadside shrubbery during specific seasons. 鈥淚f you cut plants at one time of the year, it produces really yummy succulent brows.鈥�
Some places 鈥� not Prince George 鈥� have employed more creative, albeit expensive, options: sprinkling cayenne pepper in the road salt.
Though the ministry updates its moose-collision hot-spots every five years, the most recent publicly available reported 410 accidents in 2007.
That only covers a fraction of the problem; the ministry estimates that reported numbers represent a mere 25 to 30 per cent of the actual number of wildlife collisions.
That鈥檚 because workers only count the animals found on the asphalt, says Rea, adding predators are quick to smell carcasses and drag them from the accident site.
鈥淚f it goes in the ditch, if it drops off the side of a cliff or into a lake, or if to the animals gets hit and then wanders off into the woods, it鈥檚 never recorded.鈥�
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