![]() ![]() Construction on its first wildlife bridge, east of the Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascades, began in 2015 over Interstate 90, which runs from Seattle to Boston. Washington State is one of the latest to join in. ( See pictures of the underpass in Kenya reuniting elephant herds.) As he points out, it’s a lot easier-and cheaper-to build in these mitigations during road construction than it is to retrofit, as has been done in the U.S. Ament is even working on wildlife crossings for highways that haven’t been built yet in developing nations like Bhutan, which need safe places for Asian elephants to traverse their territories. But they’re helping countless species, from gold monkeys and pumas in Brazil to water voles in London. Usually looking much like a regular overpass for cars, but decked out with native flora, they aren’t particularly noticeable unless you know what you’re looking for.Īnd undercrossings, which pass beneath highways to assist shyer and smaller animals, may be invisible to drivers. That’s why these traffic-spanning bridges and tunnels-which have been popular in Europe since the 1950s when the first was built in France-are showing up worldwide. ![]() ![]() “You can get reductions of 85 to 95 percent with crossings and fencing that guide animals under or over highways,” Ament says. Studies that looked at a cross-section of native species' deaths on highways in Florida, bandicoots and wallabies in Australia, and jaguars in Mexico, just to name a few, all show that wildlife crossings save money and lives, both human and animal. There’s one solution, however, that’s been remarkably effective around the world in decreasing collisions between cars and animals crossing the road: wildlife under- and overpasses. “Over the most recently reported 15-year period, wildlife-vehicle collisions have increased by 50 percent, with an estimated one to two million large animals killed by motorists every year,” says Rob Ament, the road ecology program manager at WTI. These crashes are expensive, too: Deer-car collisions cost an average of $8,190, an elk-vehicle collision is about $25,319, and a moose-vehicle collision is $44,546, taking into consideration human injuries and death, towing, vehicle repair, investigation of the accident by local authorities, and carcass disposal, according to a paper from the Western Transportation Institute (WTI) at Montana State University.Īnd the number of these deadly accidents is growing. People are also hurt-about 200 die every year in the more than one million car collisions in the U.S., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In the United States, there are 21 threatened and endangered species whose very survival is threatened by road mortalities, including Key deer in Florida, bighorn sheep in California, and red-bellied turtles in Alabama. In just two years along one stretch of highway in Utah, 98 deer, three moose, two elk, multiple raccoons, and a cougar were killed in car collisions-a total of 106 animals. Roaring traffic doesn’t stop big mammals like moose and bears from crossing highways-nor does it keep myriad smaller creatures from being squished by car tires.
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