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Ladies, believe it or not, this guy is available… 44-year-old bachelor Jonathan McGowan has lived on a diet of roadkill for the past 30 years to avoid buying meat from the supermarket.

The taxidermist from Bournemouth, Dorset, never kills the animals himself but eats only what he finds on the roadside. He has shunned pre-packaged meats and instead dined on mice, moles, hedgehogs, pigeons, crows and gulls.

Like everybody else that eats roadkill, Mr McGowan first got a taste for it at the ripe old age of 14 when he cooked a dead adder that he had found.

He said: ‘The adder didn’t actually taste very nice – a bit like bacon rind. But it had piqued my curiosity and I wondered what else I could eat and what it would taste like.’

“Everywhere I looked there were dead animals; fish that had been caught, pheasants that had been shot and animals that had been run over in the road so naturally I became drawn to nature and how it worked.

I used to cut up dead animals to see their insides and when I did all I could see was fresh, organic meat, better than the kind I had seen in the supermarkets. So I never saw a problem with cooking and eating it.”

Mr McGowan, who gives presentations in schools and colleges, has long extolled the virtues of his diet to friends who have been surprisingly open to the idea of roadkill dinner parties.

His owl curries and pan-fried craneflies, served with olive oil, celery and raisins are often popular, as are his rat stir fries.

He says many animals taste much better than people would expect:

Foxes – There’s a common myth that you cannot eat them but they are most delicious. It is a lean meat and there is never any fat. Young foxes are always very nice and they taste slightly like chicken.

Mice – They taste weird – there is no other food quite like them. They aren’t particularly nice and have a very bitter flavour. They are of course so small that they are almost worthless.

Rats – They are most delicious and it is a misconception that they are dirty. They are quite like pork but quite salty. They are delicious and the meat is great on its own. I would not eat city rats but in Dorset they are very good.

Pigeons – I don’t eat town pigeons but wood pigeons are very nice. They are very large and very irony. It’s best marinated and I love to have it with red wine.

Moles – They are horrible and have a rancid taste. They have an unpleasant taste in their skin to ward off predators. Wild animals don’t eat them. I’ve only had one once and never again.

Hedgehogs – When you get in it’s all fatty meat. It’s not nice but okay if you like eating fatty foods.

Squirrels – They are most delicious. They provide a good firm white meat which is quite similar to rabbit but not as overpowering. Not many animals taste like what they eat but squirrels do have a nutty flavour. It’s fantastic stuff.

Wild cats – You do get a few wild cats in Dorset as you do in Scotland. They have a very nice flavour but they are very rare.

Bit odd – but fantastic!

[Cheers dailymail]