Is roadkill more prominent in NJ this fall? (Opinion)

I’ll be honest, I thought it was just me.

I had noticed over the last few weeks that I’ve been passing a LOT of dead animals on the way to and from work.

A squirrel or two on local roads.

Two deer on 195.

Another deer and a raccoon on 295.

And then something bloody, furry, and unidentifiable on the local roads before pulling into the office.

I figured maybe I was being hyper-aware of these animals after an incident I had in August where a deer hit my car and died.

R.I.P. my car door.

Yes, that’s right, I didn’t hit IT, it hit ME. You can read about the whole ordeal here. It left me pretty shaken up about driving for a while and I supposed that was why I was keeping track of the amount of roadkill I saw.

Until I saw this NSFW (“not safe for work,” for those who don’t know) post on the New Jersey subreddit.

Reddit user U/Bane_of_BILLEXE writes: Call me crazy but I've never seen this many dead animals on both backroads and highways (This is in North Jersey). It hasn't always been this bad, right? I swear I'll see an average of 2 dead deer every time I drive on the highway now.

I’M NOT ALONE!

Granted, it is rutting season for the deer, which is when they're more likely to brazenly run across the roads because- for lack of better words- they’re basically too horny to function. But this seems more extreme than any prior rutting season I’ve driven through.

Some speculate that this could be the result of the pandemic. Far fewer cars were on the road over the past year and a half, leading to wild animals having a more “devil may care” attitude about crossing the roads.

Then there are the sillier takes like U/Jagrmeister_68: Damn animals texting while walking across the roadways....

Or U/Low-Finance-4068: Deer had to social distance last year so the rutt is more extreme this year…

So what do you think? Have you noticed more roadkill on the roads of the Garden State? Take our poll below.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5's Kylie Moore. Any opinions expressed are Kylie's own. You can follow Kylie on Instagram.