Need a new reason to hate cars? You’re in luck! Death by vehicle could be a major contributing factor in declining numbers of amphibians, according to new research published in the journal Herpetological Conservation and Biology. (Hee hee, they said “herpetological.”) Intrepid road-kill researchers from Purdue University spent 17 months schlepping up 10,500 animals flattened on Indiana highways, and ID’d some 95 percent of the wildlife as frogs and other amphibians. “[Many] were females bearing eggs on an annual trip to breeding ground where they often lay 500 to 1,000 eggs,” says coauthor Andrew DeWoody. “This could make a big difference for the population.” And the actual total of obliterated amphibians could be up to five times higher, say researchers, as most of the roadkill was unidentifiable due to being decayed, moldy, half-eaten, or just too squashed. Sorry, were you eating?
