Conducted survey of the North section from 8:46 am - 12:45 pm. Weather was 40° F, clear skies when I started.

Observers: Karan, Lauren and Janet (WCSV volunteers)

Documented 403 Dead newts. No distinct juvenile size from my recollection. No live newts :(

Documented Human Activity:
Cars:86
Motorcycles: 0
Bikes: 13
Pedestrian: 24
Parked cards: 20

Notes: I did observe quite a few floaters (i.e. dead newts on the side of the road that were peeled already from the ground), so I asked the volunteers to either throw them off the side of the hill or dig a shallow grave to avoid double dipping in the future.

3 groups of pedestrians stopped by to ask what we were doing. One of them exclaimed "Oh so these are the same ones they have on the road signs. I was thinking do the signs show a crocodile crossing? I didn't even know if we had crocodiles in this area". Another person asked what are the possible solutions to avoid this to which I discussed road closures, elevated roads..blah blah. Although he wasn't sold on any of the options except road closures. And one couple was just curious if these were the same things they saw on the side of their trails while hiking.

Link to my observations for today: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-02-21&place_id=any&q=roadkill&subview=map&user_id=karangattu&verifiable=any

Posted on February 22, 2022 12:48 AM by karangattu