Rural insurer NFU Mutual has produced a list of animal accident blackspots and issued drivers a warning to watch out for deer on the roads.

New data from the company shows that winter is the worst time of  year for collisions  with deer and that in recent years the number of accidents has been increasing.

Action group, The Deer Initiative, puts the number of deer collisions at between 30,000 and 50,000 a year.

But NFU Mutual has also identified the UK’s top wildlife road accident blackspots for deer, badgers and pheasants.

They are:

Scotland: DEER – A7 between Dumfries and Annan; A689 near Brampton; A7 south of Longtown; A9 Elgin; A80 (Glasgow to Stirling)

North West: DEER – Tatton Park (Mere Road); Knutsford, Cheshire.

West Midlands: BADGERS – Richards Castle (heading towards Leominster); Ludlow, Shrops; A52 and A523, Leek, Staffs

West Midlands: DEER –Cannock Chase, Lichfield, Staffs; Fosse Way (Bowshot Crossroads to Halford), Warwicks

Northern Ireland: BADGER – Baronscourt and Newtownstewart, County Tyrone.

East Midlands: DEER – A52 Donnington & Billingsborough, Lincs; A151, A1 to Bourne, Lincs; A15 north and south Bourne, Lincs; B-roads around Grimsthorpe, Lincs.

East Anglia: DEER – B1145 Bawsey, Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

South West: BADGERS AND DEER – A377 Exeter Road; A3072 Crediton

South West: DEER – Holford Common at the Quantocks, Bridgwater, Somerset