States where most deer are hit by cars.

[Gliderjohn]

What is such a problem with deer is that they are one of the few "accidents" that probably 90+% of the time one cannot do a damn thing about. All one can really do is to try to minimize riding during prime times of day/night and during rut. The ones you see are not the problem it's the ones that come out of nowhere.
BTW, several hundred deer and other animal strikes on take off and landing occur every year with aircraft. I bet a deer prop strike is not a pretty sight.
GliderJohn

[wirespokes]

I hit an elk 12 years ago, and as if that wasn't bad enough, went into a tank slapper that took me over a 20 foot embankment. Got knocked out, but luckily no concussion, but six cracked/broken ribs. Of course the bike was totaled.

Ever since, I stay off the road at dawn or dusk or after dark. Sometimes it can't be helped, so I take it really easy. But you're right - they can come out of nowhere, and those are the statistics. But they can strike any time of the day - mine was late afternoon - several hours before dusk.

Deer have a survival trait of running when frightened, not knowing which direction they're going, which makes it difficult for the prey. When startled, they just take off, and if you're unlucky, right in front of you.

[John A]

Wire, I've seen what you describe. I had one running alongside me, her eyes were wild obviously spooked. Foaming at the mouth I realized there was no thought what she was doing, pure panic and while I was considering my options she suddenly jumped over the back. I heard a hoof hit a saddlebag. I stopped at the stop sign, the reason I wasn't going faster. My friend on the bike behind me asked "how long did you have to work with her to get her to do that?".

[oldbike54]

 Deer have one basic survival mechanism , to act completely unpredictable . Have heard people say they know what a deer will do , which is obviously incorrect , as the deer doesn't know what they are gonna do .

 Dusty

[Arizona Wayne]

Because of hitting 2 deer, 1 about 10am, the other about noon, I avoid riding at night.   Then there was the elk suddenly running our speed(50 mph) right next to us on the shoulder on a 2 lane mountain road in the middle of the day !    I slowed to 45 mph and it ran across in front of us and over the metal guardrail.   THAT spooked me !   

[Tom]

Amazing to watch deer jumping over a fence.  Makes you realize that the fence along highways don't work.  On the way home yesterday, I passed a small herd of goats grazing on the shoulder.  They're smarter.  I've only seen one roadkill antelope in my travels.  Seems they're part of the goat family or vice versa.

[Arizona Wayne]

Amazing to watch deer jumping over a fence.  Makes you realize that the fence along highways don't work.  On the way home yesterday, I passed a small herd of goats grazing on the shoulder.  They're smarter.  I've only seen one roadkill antelope in my travels.  Seems they're part of the goat family or vice versa.

1 time a group of us Guzzisti saw a cougar run @ full speed right thru a wire fence !!!  .... when it approached the fence it stretched out, went thru the rectangular fence hole and proceeded to run again on the other side in a pure grace of movement like the fence wasn't even there !!      It ran across the road between our bikes before the fence

[Jim Rich]

Nothing better than fresh bumper stunned pan fried venison.   

[Tom]

1 time a group of us Guzzisti saw a cougar run @ full speed right thru a wire fence !!!  .... when it approached the fence it stretched out, went thru the rectangular fence hole and proceeded to run again on the other side in a pure grace of movement like the fence wasn't even there !!      It ran across the road between our bikes before the fence

That must have been a WTF moment. 

[Arizona Wayne]

That must have been a WTF moment. 

I was stunned by Its capabilities.  I thought it was going to plow into that wire fence.   Little did I know..........

[webmost]

Because of hitting 2 deer, 1 about 10am, the other about noon, I avoid riding at night.   

“If I had to live my life over, I'd live over a saloon.”
― W.C. Fields

[Mark Dasher]

Something wrong with this list. Pennsyltucky I can believe. Dead deer all over the place. Especially I-81 and I-476. But no way WV is #1. I've ridden all over West Virginia at deer o'clock. Not a prob. It's remarkable how few deer carcasses you ever see, considering all the woods there. On the rare occasion you do see deer, they are midgetary little things no bigger than a dog. Not like deer in the Rockies. Colder winters = bigger deer.

Including how much your insurance goes up is an interesting angle.

Don't hit a moose. You won't be there to collect the insurance

I respectfully disagree.  I live in the Ohio River valley of WV.  The deer population is larger here than in the mountainous parts of the state - if that's even possible.  They are EVERYWHERE!  You'll even see them wandering through downtown in the middle of the night.  And no they are not small little things - they are Eastern Whitetail deer, quite substantial in size - not like the midget deer in Texas.  They are very destructive and it'ss hard to have any sort of garden since they'll eat anything.
We have an urban hunt (bow only) every year, but the population keeps on growing.  Deer carcasses are plentiful on I77 and US50.  On the side roads they just get pushed off into the bushes.  It is a serious concern when riding motorcycles and I usually keep my riding limited to hours other than 'o deer-thirty...

--Mark

[travelingbyguzzi]

Shredded meat is shredded meat.    Any one seen "King Rat"

King Rat was the only James Clavell novel that I cared for. But I enjoyed that one a lot. I recommend it to any manly man.

[John A]

King Rat was the only James Clavell novel that I cared for. But I enjoyed that one a lot. I recommend it to any manly man.

I liked the book more than the movie but both are good. I actually prefer rat over dog .Something about eating Fido bugs me where eating Willard does not, I suppose. I wonder that a lot of discussions evolve to food.

[john fish]

I respectfully disagree.  I live in the Ohio River valley of WV.  The deer population is larger here than in the mountainous parts of the state - if that's even possible.  They are EVERYWHERE!  You'll even see them wandering through downtown in the middle of the night.  And no they are not small little things - they are Eastern Whitetail deer, quite substantial in size - not like the midget deer in Texas.  They are very destructive and it'ss hard to have any sort of garden since they'll eat anything.
We have an urban hunt (bow only) every year, but the population keeps on growing.  Deer carcasses are plentiful on I77 and US50.  On the side roads they just get pushed off into the bushes.  It is a serious concern when riding motorcycles and I usually keep my riding limited to hours other than 'o deer-thirty...

--Mark

Mark is spot on.  I've been lucky enough to do a lot of riding on the backroads of WV.  Seen deer in the road at all times of the day.  Almost hit two while showing a new Guzzisti on a new V7 the back route to Thomas WV (The St. George expressway :)  ).   

Roadkill is cleaned up pretty quickly, both officially and unofficially by connoisseurs of 'hillside trout'.  We even have a festival for it:

http://pccocwv.com/roadkill

[Tom]

I liked the book more than the movie but both are good. I actually prefer rat over dog .Something about eating Fido bugs me where eating Willard does not, I suppose. I wonder that a lot of discussions evolve to food.

We need to eat.  We don't really need to ride a motorcycle. 

[John A]

that's crazy talk,Tom

[Tom]

Yeah....yeah....I know.  I eat so that I can ride.  

[PeteS]

I am surprised New York didn't even make the top 20. Rarely a day goes by I don't see at least one carcass on my commute and thats only 12 miles.

Pete

[Arizona Wayne]

I am surprised New York didn't even make the top 20. Rarely a day goes by I don't see at least one carcass on my commute and thats only 12 miles.

Pete

Saw a U tube video where a guy was doin' about 80 mph on a crotch rocket when a deer suddenly jumped out in front of him on his right..........he sliced it in half and kept on going straight........... ...turned around to see what he hit.........saw the deer in 2 pieces at the neck in both lanes of the 2 lane road and his full faiiring partially broken on the right  side.  His fairing acted like a knife slicing thru the deer.     Rider wasn't hurt at all.

[Lannis]

Lots of hungry mountain folk to scoop 'em up.  A lot easier to catch if they're not moving, plus no wasted ammo.

Probably not.   

First of all, take ride through those WV mountains, kick back with a Coke at the door of the local convenience store, and see how many "hungry folk" you see.  A whole lot of them are pretty fat.  (The hunger problem is NOT because we can't get food to people).

And a deer whose gut contents and musk glands have been smashed and mixed in with the meat by the 3 axles of a 60,000 pound Mack coal truck is pretty unappetizing compared to what you can get at the local WalMart, few of which are farther than 45 minutes away from anyone in the state ...

Lannis

[rodekyll]

Alaska didn't make the deer list.  We might have, but as it's explained to me, if you make an insurance report you don't get to keep the deer.


We'd have done pretty well on the moose and elk charts.  They stop you better than deer do.  The inability of the Anchorage area drivers to see 1500# of moose in their way has been honed to a fine skill.

I've had bison loping down the road beside me.  Don't want them to change direction in a hurry! 

One night a brown bear ran across the highway in front of me and vaulted the 4' guard rail on the other side at about a 45º angle without breaking stride.  It was moving so fast I thought at first that it was just a headlight hallucination.  He impressed me with the grace of the leap and that he didn't sever something on the edge of the rail.  I think I would have been more impressed by whatever was chasing him if I'd hung around to find out.   

[John A]

Near MT Baker, WA , 1/4 mile from my house a mountain lion casually walked across the road in front of me. I had stopped 40 ft from him and he just looked at me, he was thinking " I'm King here ,kid ". Buffalo and moose scare me, there are not enough of them around here to understand how they act and are too solid. Bear are usually moving and hopefully away from me. When we did SR71 swap outs on the Okinawa based Sr71s we would base our refueling aircraft out of Ielson AFB,near Fairbanks in the summer and Hawaii during the winter. Anyway we had to scare the moose off the runway before we landed at Ielson AFB. Sometimes they would fly an old F4 down low, a sight to see for sure as this was in the '80's. Deb and I came upon a moose hit by a family in a car on the last trip to Montana on our bikes. Blood everywhere, some of it was the moose's .

[rocker59]

Amazing to watch deer jumping over a fence.  Makes you realize that the fence along highways don't work.   

The fences along the interstates are not for deer.  They're for livestock:  Cows, Horses, etc.  (and to limit access by vehicles)

They'd have to use 8-foot+ fences to manage the deer.  And, they do that in some places in New Mexico and Colorado.  At places where they've provided underpasses for the deer and elk, the highway is lined with 8 or 10 foot fencing, to funnel them to the underpass.

[Arizona Wayne]

Speaking of bear.........1 afternoon about  3:45pm I was riding my LM IV home in the foothills in norCal on Marysville Rd. when I suddenly heard something thru my earplugs but all I could see was dry tall grass.  I was doing about 65 mph and a car was coming the other way on the 2 lane road.   Suddenly this black bear comes running out of the grass perpendicular to the road right between the car and me !     We both slam on our brakes and miss hitting it.   It was a young bear and you couldn't see it until it came out of the dry grass. Figured it was going to the water nearby.  If I had hit that bear...............

[Tom]

The fences along the interstates are not for deer.  They're for livestock:  Cows, Horses, etc.  (and to limit access by vehicles)

They'd have to use 8-foot+ fences to manage the deer.  And, they do that in some places in New Mexico and Colorado.  At places where they've provided underpasses for the deer and elk, the highway is lined with 8 or 10 foot fencing, to funnel them to the underpass.

Addendum......."The fence doesn't work for deer." 

[rodekyll]

A slight drift, but on the subject of bears -- the fifth brown bear mauling of the year in SE Alaska was reported over the weekend.  They are a real danger.

[canuck750]

Deer are plentiful in Alberta on the prairies, in the mountains elk probably outnumber deer.
I was unfortunate to hit one about 10 years ago, I had borrowed my sons Chevy Cavalier to attend a golf tournament that wrapped up at dusk.  Undivided secondary road in the country, pretty close spaced traffic and all I remember is seeing a white tail passing across the windshield in full flight, the deer struck the right hand A pillar, swung around and took out the right hand side doors, B pillar and caved in the right hand rear quarter panel. I manage to pull over and walked back to try and find the animal, deep bush in the shoulder, it was dark and no sign of it. The car was a full write off, I was stunned by the damage caused by a White-tail.

[tiger_one]

Road kill doesn't last long around this area of Chief Joseph Scenic Byway!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1RB9kTo1U8

[OlDogface]

Question - does anyone (other than me anyway) adjust their riding based on when hunting season starts? I live here in bee-u-tea-ful Pennsyltucky and our bow season just opened . I didn't ride to work this morning, not due to the heavy fog, but due to our disturbed deer.

I have a 15 mile hilly/twisty backroad commute. It's normally a really nice on the Guzzi and I normally arrive at work with a grin; however, the first few days of bow and rifle hunting seasons I only ride during full daylight. I took my car this morning and "only" saw 2 deer. Tomorrow is another day.