How motorcycle riders can avoid collisions with deer and other animals

Updated. For the first three and half decades of my riding career, I was oblivious to the hazards presented by deer and other animals on the road. Even though I ride frequently in the mountains, went to college in Wisconsin, and have ridden tens of thousands of miles in deer country, much it after dark, I had encountered one elk and a few cattle actually on the road and seen one deer. Animals simply weren’t a consideration for me until one night in the coastal mountains of Southern California, when a smallish mule deer leapt down onto the road from an embankment on the right. I hit it at about 40 mph just as it landed, punting it across the road and down a steep cliff on the opposite side, fortunately without crashing. Around that same time, a coworker from Sport Rider hit another deer at a higher speed, splitting the deer in two and crashing. The rider walked away mostly because he was wearing good protective gear and a lot of it.