Road ecology blog: Lesser grison (Galictis cuja), near Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

While I was photographing the dead lesser grison an employee (Luís Gustavo Lopes Almada) of the toll road company (concessionária Nascentes das Gerais) happened to drive by. Luís saw me photographing the dead animal and stopped to remove it from the road. It is standard practice that employees from tollroad companies drive by at least every few hours to check the condition of the road. This includes removing and recording dead animals that may be present along the road. For Luís the standard practice is to dig a hole along the side of the road and bury the animal. Interestingly - but not surprisingly - Luís did not know the name of the species. He probably would have left the name of the species on the form blank. This suggests that relatively rare species may be under-reported; not only because other people may remove the carcass from the road before road maintenance personnel drives by, but also because road maintenance personnel may not have the training required to identify relatively rare species.

Click here for other images of animals that were killed by cars.

Click here for other images of animals alive on or near roads.

Some large format prints (limited edition) are now for sale at Freshwater Studio & Gallery in Missoula, Montana.

Like Marcel Huijser Photography on Facebook

All content © 2014 Marcel Huijser

Lesser grison (Galictis cuja) roadkill, about 3 km west of Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, BrazilLesser grison (Galictis cuja) roadkill, about 3 km west of Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Lesser grison (Galictis cuja) roadkill, about 3 km west of Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, BrazilLesser grison (Galictis cuja) roadkill, about 3 km west of Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, Brazil Lesser grison (Galictis cuja) roadkill, about 3 km west of Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, BrazilLesser grison (Galictis cuja) roadkill, about 3 km west of Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, Brazil Lesser grison (Galictis cuja) roadkill with Luís Gustavo Lopes Almada from the concessionária Nascentes das Gerais driving by, about 3 km west of Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, BrazilLesser grison (Galictis cuja) roadkill with Luís Gustavo Lopes Almada from the concessionária Nascentes das Gerais driving by, about 3 km west of Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, Brazil Lesser grison (Galictis cuja) roadkill is removed from the highway by Luís Gustavo Lopes Almada from the concessionária Nascentes das Gerais, about 3 km west of Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, BraziLesser grison (Galictis cuja) roadkill is removed from the highway by Luís Gustavo Lopes Almada from the concessionária Nascentes das Gerais, about 3 km west of Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, Brazi Lesser grison (Galictis cuja) roadkill is removed from the highway by Luís Gustavo Lopes Almada from the concessionária Nascentes das Gerais, about 3 km west of Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, BraziLesser grison (Galictis cuja) roadkill is removed from the highway by Luís Gustavo Lopes Almada from the concessionária Nascentes das Gerais, about 3 km west of Furnas, MG-050, Minas Gerais, Brazi