Death on the Road

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Female Black Howler (Alouatta caraya) with its young
near the Transpantaneira Road
PHOTO © Daniel De Granville, 2003

This week, more precisely on October 4th, we celebrate the World Animal Day, which – not by chance – overlaps the day of St. Francis of Assisi, considered as the Patron of Animals.


For a long time I’ve been thinking about setting up an itinerant exhibition on this date, with photos and information, aimed to bring up drivers’ awareness about the problem of wildlife kills in our roads – specially those which cross more preserved natural environments, such as the Pantanal. Since 1999 I have systematically collected photo records of animal road kills, and unfortunately it has not been a difficult task to find the subjects I must photograph.

While the exhibition doesn’t come true, this subject gradually brought up the media’s interest, and in August 2005 I was invited by the National Geographic to publish an article about the theme on their website, simultaneously with the Pantanal story that came out in the same edition.

The main inspiration for my work came from the research carried out between 1996 and 1997 by Brazilian biologist Wagner Fisher, where he registered the death of 1,400 animals in one year of studies along the Federal Road 262, that crosses the South Pantanal. Among the victims are 88 species – many of which endangered – including caimans, capybara, foxes, anteaters, armadillos, several birds (such as hawks and seriemas) and even jaguars.

This subject is food for thought during your next road trip, since animals might not be the only victims of such accidents.

A young Black Howler Monkey (Alouatta caraya) run over
at Transpantaneira Road

This photo was finalist in a Brazilian Nature Photo contest last July

PHOTO © Daniel De Granville, 2003
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