Aside from range fires, dried-up gardens and wildlife stress, drought conditions have yielded another destructive consequence: an increased number of livestock and wild animals on rural roadways and a rise in vehicle-animal crashes.

Since July, Milam County law officers have answered more than 125 “livestock in the roadway” calls - sometimes as many as five calls in one day.

“The bad thing is we are in a drought and the pastures are burned up and gone,” said Milam County Sheriff David Greene. “The only grass left is in the bar ditches. Cattle are breaking through the fence. We try to put the cattle back up if we can. We don’t leave them on the highway. It’s time-consuming for my men. They spend a lot of time putting them back.”

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers in Milam County have worked more than 30 animal-vehicle crashes this year through Aug. 31, including 10 deer, six hogs, six dogs, six cows, one opossum, two horses and two unidentified casualties thought to be feral hogs.

DPS Cpl. Jimmy Morgan of Cameron, a 20-year highway patrol veteran, said smaller animals - such as raccoons, opossums and skunks as well as house cats and dogs - may escape becoming road kill but they can still cause accidents when motorists try to avoid them.

Last year’s DPS collision statistics showed that 28 deer were killed by motor vehicles on Milam County rural roadways, but considerably fewer livestock and other wild animals casualties for a year-long tally of 59 in 2007. Numbers from the DPS do not reflect rural traffic accidents worked by county sheriff’s deputies.

DPS Sgt. Jason Griffin of Cameron said the drought may increase animal activities, but motorists traveling through rural and agricultural areas should always be watchful of straying farm animals and wild roaming creatures.

“Just be observant, pay attention to what you are doing,” Griffin said. “Speed has a lot to do with it, so slow down at night, use correct lighting for the conditions, and know if you are in rural areas, those types of animals may be on the roadway. If the animal is dark in color, many times there is not a whole lot you can do.”

The impact can be fatally devastating when an automobile or light truck traveling 70 mph broadsides a solidly built farm animal that tips the scales at 2,000 pounds, Griffin said.

“One of the most dangerous animals on the roadway you may encounter is a horse,” Morgan said. “You hit the legs and then you find it in the cab with you. Take that same weighted animal and make it a cow, massive damage to the front, but the front is going to take most of the blow.”

Speed contributes heavily to the outcome of a cow-vehicle crash, Morgan said.

“The worst one I ever worked is when a vehicle struck a cow at high speed on FM 1915 north of Buckholts,” he said.

“They hit it so hard and fast that the cow did get airlifted and went into the cab of the automobile. It took the roof off,” Morgan said. The occupants survived, but were severely injured.

“It depends on the vehicle and how fast you are going,” he said. “If you are paying attention and can cut that speed, you may hit the animal, but if you can go from 50 to 30 mph before you hit it, it might make some difference whether you get injuries or maximum damage.”

Morgan advises people wanting to buy a vehicle to look beyond the cheapest, highest mileage car and get a more substantial vehicle.

Additionally, brush guards help minimize the amount of damage, where “if you don’t have it, the animal gets up in your grill, radiator and the motor. If a brush guard does anything, it saves you money, so far as the amount of damage, but people are not going to put a brush guard on a Cadillac,” Morgan said.

Feral hogs, seen traveling in packs of 20 in some areas of rural Milam County, can cause extensive damage to cars and light pickup trucks as well as injuries to vehicle occupants, said Morgan, who mused at the few vehicle-hog crashes this year compared to the expanding population of feral hogs in Central Texas.

One sheriff’s deputy vehicle was damaged recently in a collision with a feral hog, Greene said.

Mike Mitchell, Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden in Milam County, said fall typically produces more deer-vehicle accidents because of decreasing food supplies and rut.

Thus, deer often are attracted to roadsides because of the quantity and quality of forage that is produced, said Billy Lambert, Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist for Milam County.

A variety of factors come into play, Lambert said. Many of the roadsides typically hold water longer than adjacent lands, thus, the vegetation is more productive and stays greener for a longer period of time.

Also, many of the roadsides consist of native vegetation that deer prefer, or are planted to wildflowers that can attract deer. Much of Texas is usually dry in the summer and fall, so deer have to look harder to find suitable vegetation for food, Lambert said.

“Many bucks increase their daily activity and home range in search of does during this time, and cross many roads as a result,” Lambert said.

TPWD officials warn that under state law, it is a Class C misdemeanor offense to possess a deer or any part of a deer hit by a motor vehicle.

If a deer is injured in a vehicle crash, a game warden is dispatched to put down the animal. Sometimes a fresh deer carcass is donated to charity. Road kill deer and other large animals left in state highway rural right of way are collected by Texas Department of Transportation maintenance crews and taken to a legal landfill for disposal, said Bob Colwell, public information officer for TxDOT’s Bryan District.

Using headlight high beams when possible can help motorists identify deer and other animals in the roadway, Morgan said.

“When you have low lighting in the early morning hours and at night, that is when we hit those kinds of animals when they are on the move,” he said.