Thousands of animals were killed on UK roads in the last year, including many on Surrey's main thoroughfares.

Figures from Highways England reveal that at least one animal a week is killed on A roads and motorways passing through the county - and the most at risk of death is the deer.

Thirty five deer died on four Surrey roads alone in 2016-17, according to data from a Freedom of Information request.

Surrey's deadliest road is the M3 , crossing through the north west of the county, which claimed the lives of 37 animals including 22 deer, three badgers, one cat, four dogs, five foxes and two swans.

The motorway connecting London to Brighton, through Surrey, the M23, sadly saw the most household pets as roadkill, with three cats and three dogs found dead.

Two badgers, three cats, 11 deer, three foxes and one unknown animal made up the total number of 23 deaths on the M23 , which has a junction heading towards Gatwick Airport .

611 deer died on British roads in the last year

Surprisingly, the road responsible for the least animal deaths was the A3 , which passes through Guildford , where only one "unknown" roadkill was found in the same time period.

Across the UK, 2,213 animals were found dead on motorways and A-roads, including foxes, polecats, minks and even a wallaby.

A concerning 10 horses, the largest of all animals in the dataset, were found dead on UK roads - that's nearly one a month.

Bizarrely, one motorway saw a high number of owl deaths, with 18 found killed on the M6 motorway, in the north west of England.

But deers have the worst luck nationwide, with nearly two dying a day and a total of 611 deaths in the time period, followed closely by the badger, 534 of which died on UK roads.


