Chickens’ motives for crossing the road are often questioned – but pheasants should probably avoid it altogether, new research suggests. Researchers from the universities of Exeter and Cardiff compared roadkill figures from the 1960s and 2010s – before and after the start of mass release programmes of pheasants for shooting – and found pheasants remain disproportionately likely to be run over compared to other birds.”There may be a number of reasons why pheasants are so commonly killed on the roads, including their short flight distances and relatively small brains,” said Dr Joah Madden, of the University of Exeter.