Do you know that deer can slip quietly out of the woods and onto the road without warning? I silently ask this question of the driver behind me, who is on my bumper, eager to push me forward and make me go faster down this mountain road in late afternoon, even though I’m driving at least 10 miles over the speed limit.
I think of the time last year when I was driving back to the cabin from Estes Park in the dusk, driving the speed limit because this was the time of the day when the animals emerged from the forests along the road. That time, too, another car was on my bumper, and when I saw a deer step from the dark woods, I started to slow down. When the irritated driver behind me started to pass me, I had to honk the horn, as much to scare the deer back into the woods as to alert the driver, who stopped just in time.
And so I find myself in the position of being the old lady slowing traffic and irritating the impatient drivers behind me. The ones who drive seemingly unaware that herds of elk sometimes wander onto the highway and pause, as if unsure where to go. The drivers who don’t know that bighorn sheep descend from their high rocky perches to lick salt from the road in the winter.
These aggressive drivers likely don’t care about the chipmunks and ground squirrels that dart out from the bushes without looking, running as fast as they can to get across the road before a car comes. Or that birds sometimes fly low and can get hit by an onrushing heavy car.
Even in Rocky Mountain National Park, where tourists come to actively seek out wildlife, I see cars speeding down Trail Ridge Road, seemingly ignorant of the whole tapestry of life that exists alongside this ribbon of paved road: deer and elk in the forest and meadows, moose among the willow bushes and aspen trees, birds perching in the high trees or squirrels running through the tall grasses.
It’s an ignorance bordering on arrogance, one that presumes our human existence is the most important, that we can mow down animals that get in our way, and that getting to our destination as quickly as possible is more important than respecting the lives of other beings.
I could pull over, let these impatient drivers pass me and speed on their way, but I feel responsible for protecting my animal brethren, if just for that evening or that hour.
If I can save one animal from the crushing weight of a car, I’ll be happy. Meanwhile, I’ll mourn all the others.