As the human footprint continues to expand, roads destroy animal habitats. In recent years, more and more countries have begun to build exclusive passages for wildlife on roads and railways. From a miniature railway bridge built for dormouse in the UK to a series of passages designed for elk and bears in Colorado, USA, the Wildlife Bridge has ushered in a whole new era.
To help reindeer safely cross the main road, Sweden proposed a "retrofit channel" plan in January 2020. Since then, the Swedish Transport Administration has built an ecological corridor on the E6 motorway in Skåne in the south. In Southern California, construction begins in 2022 on the world's largest wildlife bridge, which will link isolated mountain lion populations north of Los Angeles to address a worsening problem of inbreeding. The Biden administration in the United States has allocated $350 million for the construction of animal passages to reduce the billions of dollars in animal car accident losses every year.
Wildlife passages can also be found elsewhere: an underpass for elephants in the Mount Kenya region; a network of ecological corridors in the Netherlands to help once-disappeared wolves settle near densely populated villages; locals in Java using Hanging water pipes provide passage for endangered slow lorises; a planned US bridge over the Mississippi River may help bison cross the river.
Alligator Trail in Florida, USA
Florida's Everglades is a vast natural wetland home to thousands of alligators, fawns, and the endangered Florida leopard. However, the 129-kilometer road between Naples and Fort Lauderdale cuts across the wetlands. The road was once notorious for its high incidence of animal crashes. Later, the state government expanded the highway to four lanes and added animal crossings. Today, under the protection of fences, wildlife can walk safely through dozens of underpasses.
"It's very important to have a fence along the alligator trail," said Brent Sechel, a design engineer with the Florida Department of Transportation. The 3-meter-tall barbed wire fence has three strands of barbed wire at the top to keep wildlife off the road and gradually Get used to using their own channel."
Through hidden cameras, people found that there are many animals using the channel, including leopards, black bears, North American skunks, deer, bats, birds and even fish. The local network of wildlife bridges could also continue northwards, potentially linking the potential habitat of the Florida leopard.
Australia's "Tunnel of Love"
The Great Alpine Road, which runs along Australia's Mount Victoria, poses a serious threat to the critically endangered mountain cuscus population. The findings show that these subpopulations separated by roads not only differ genetically but also face dangers such as fires, food shortages and invasive species. Conservationists decided to build a "love tunnel" for them to promote hybridization and increase their survival rate.
About 30 possums have used the tunnel after hibernation over the past two years. These tiny marsupials can travel through a nearly 15-meter-long tunnel in just 15 seconds—sometimes too fast for remote-sensing cameras to catch them.
tiger corridor in india
The Tiger Corridor is India's first underpass for wildlife and a hard-won victory for conservationists. India's National Highway 44 has a total length of 4,112 kilometers and runs through central India, making it the longest road in the country. Big cat crashes are common on this multi-lane highway. The government ordered remedial measures to build nine passages in the Panch Tiger Reserve, which the road passes through. In 2019, hidden cameras captured at least 18 species using the passages, including tigers, civet cats, wild dogs, sloth bears and leopards.
"About 55,000 kilometers of Indian roads pass through forests and protected areas, and many of them have added wildlife passages," said Mirind Pariwakan of the Mumbai Wildlife Conservation Trust. Many infrastructure projects are beginning to consider adding wildlife corridors, such as the Delhi-Mumbai highway under construction. The road is 1,380 kilometers long and will feature the first animal bridge in India.
The tiny mountain cuscus can travel through a nearly 15-meter-long tunnel in just 15 seconds.
For slow-moving sloths, navigating the road is extremely dangerous.
Elephant passage in Bhutan
As we all know, Bhutan is not only beautiful, but also the only carbon-negative country in the world, and can be called a "leader" in environmental protection. Nearly 700 Asian elephants live in the forests of Bhutan on the eastern edge of the Himalayas. To allow elephants to move freely between habitats, Bhutan has built an underpass along the 183-kilometer east-west highway. The monitoring results from 2015 to 2017 showed that there were 70 elephant herds near the underground passage, and 3/4 of them used the passage.
The sloth bridge in Costa Rica
There are many types of wildlife passages, and not all of them are made of reinforced concrete. Costa Rica has a rope bridge built into a jungle canopy that helps animals such as sloths and monkeys avoid car crashes, dog attacks and electric shocks.
These rope bridges on parts of the Caribbean coast are installed by the Sloth Conservation Foundation and cost about $200. Due to the needs of production development, the entire rainforest habitat there was artificially cut off. For slow creatures like sloths, navigating the road is extremely dangerous. In addition to avoiding car accidents, rope bridges also help reduce inbreeding.
Rebecca Cliff, director of the Sloth Conservation Foundation, said: "People always think sloths are weak because they look so clumsy. But in fact, as long as they are in a rainforest with easy access, they will Become a master of survival."
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