Walking home from college for lunch, I saw a squirrel run across the road in exactly the same spot as the one I discovered dead yesterday. I thought this was coincidental until I saw the squirrel briefly pause beside that of the utterly flattened one.
It's as if the run-over squirrel stood in the way of the forces of economics and was deliberately flattened... almost as if drivers have some sort of grudge against it, its body is still sprawled over the tarmac - seeing something that used to be alive that flat seems unnatural and disturbing. Perhaps those bloody humans have annoyingly socialised me, but leaving a dead body where it died seems somehow disrespectful to the squirrel - even if it is "only" a squirrel.
The fact that one squirrel runs across the road and another is killed by the cold, metallic indifference of some vehicle (and possibly the driver) made me think: Did the one that survived to scamper into the gardens on the other side, do so because of luck? Maybe 'chance' would be a choice of word.
Presuming these hit-and-carry-on-regardless happened often enough, that the population of squirrels remained high enough, and that breeding happened fast enough - the species could adapt. But in what ways?
There is a classic case in biology of moths in the (pre-1950s) cities becoming black (whereas their rural relatives remained white). The moths born with the genetic defect of having darker colouring had a greater chance of surviving because they could not be spotted by predators on the soot-covered trees of the city. Therefore, the first idea that came to mind was that the fur colouring could alter, and be reinforced through a few generations, into one which was more distinguishable from the road than the grey of the current squirrels. Indeed, Red Squirrels could have an advantage here.
The most obvious is that any animal in danger of being hit by a car could run faster and out of harms way. This of course relies on said animal having decent senses in the first place - good omnidirectional hearing and a brain to recognise blue-shifting engines (that is, vehicles approaching the animal). Improved eyesight would be unadvantageous, since sight is an active sense - how often do you watch six channels at once? - whereas audio is passive - the brain can pick out a recognised sound amongst several other noises.
So perhaps each animal hit by the rapid forward motion of our little travelling boxes is a martyr for the adaptation of their species. Of course, if the human species wasn't so preoccupied with killing everything else on this planet, we wouldn't need to ponder such things or have to protect species on the verge on annihilation. As if it wasn't bad enough when they killed-off the only other sentient beings on this planet - the Neanderthals. Several thousand regrettable years alone in this universe.
NB: I wouldn't be surprised if the squirrel was hit by the person who drives a huge "SUV". I don't know the manufacturer, but the model is named "Warrior". Exactly what is this New World Behemoth a warring against? The Environment? I laugh at the absurdity and yet fear the thought that it might be true.
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