Worldwide, roads act as both death traps and barriers for wildlife, fragmenting the landscapes animals need to survive. However, ecologists and engineers are working to \u201creconnect the wild\u201d through the strategic construction of wildlife crossings. As Mongabay contributor Ben Goldfarb reports, structures including underpasses and massive overpasses paired with roadside fencing have proved highly effective at protecting both animals and people.<\/p>\n
The U.S. state of Colorado recently completed a 61-meter-wide (200-foot) overpass \u2014 the largest in the world \u2014 near the town of Greenland. It\u2019s expected to help wildlife along a critical stretch of I-25, one of the busiest highways in the western U.S. Similarly, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in California will soon allow pumas to safely traverse the 10-lane U.S. 101 freeway.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, there\u2019s really no more question that these things can help populations,\u201d Mike Sawaya, a researcher and wildlife crossings in Canada\u2019s Banff National Park, told Mongabay.<\/p>\n
The motivation for these projects is not only conservation but also public safety and economics. Collisions with white-tailed deer kill about across the U.S. Large animal collisions cost the U.S. economy more than .<\/p>\n
Other countries have also implemented these crossings. A mountain highway in Croatia is one of the most permeable roads on Earth, while India is pioneering \u201cvirtual speed bumps\u201d to reduce vehicle speeds in wildlife zones without abrupt braking, vehicle damage, or driver discomfort. In Sri Lanka, inexpensive canopy bridges made of steel cables connected by nylon netting have allowed purple-faced langurs to safely cross between fragmented habitats without descending to the forest floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanopy crossings\u201d like these have reconnected treetops for animals in South Africa and Australia. Unlike many conventional wildlife crossings, rope bridges and ladders are portable and inexpensive: some designs cost only a few hundred dollars to construct and install.<\/p>\n
Despite this progress, ecologist William Laurance warns that crossings alone can\u2019t stop the \u201cexplosive wave\u201d of new development that can accompany roads, industrial logging, farming, mining, and urbanization. Renee Callahan, executive director of ARC Solutions, a group that studies and advocates for wildlife crossings, told Mongabay that \u201cwe could solve this problem in a generation,\u201d given sufficient investment.<\/p>\n
The United States is debating just such investment for the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, established in 2021 with $350 million in funding. Many worthy projects were turned down due to a lack of funds, so legislators are working to expand and formalize support. A bipartisan bill in the U.S. House of Representatives proposes $80 million annually for crossings over the next five years, while a Senate bill seeks $1 billion over the same period.<\/p>\n
Banner image of one of the dozens of wildlife overpasses that allow safe passage for animals in Canada\u2019s Banff National Park. Image by Ben Goldfarb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Animal crossings reduce roadkill, save lives, and reconnect habitats. See how overpasses, underpasses, and canopy bridges protect wildlife from Colorado to Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":602,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions\/602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}