A New Wildlife Crossing Provides Safe Passage Over a Busy Interstate

Fence posts that flash blue and yellow lights while emitting a high-pitched noise when they detect oncoming car headlights are preventing car crashes involving kangaroos and wallabies in Australia. The practice is known as virtual fencing.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes worked to design and implement 42 animal crossings along 56 miles of Highway 93 to reduce wild animal collisions. An average of over 22,500 animal crosses happen per year at just 29 of the structures and collisions have reduced by 71%.

A persistent problem in Massachusetts of trucks going through tunnels or underpasses that are too low for safe clearance has prompted officials to look to Sydney, Australia for a possible solution. Officials in that city worked with a private company to develop a system where if a truck is too tall, it triggers a warning so officials can activate a sheet of water at the tunnel entrance upon which is projected the holographic image of a giant red Stop sign. It's proven successful in stopping drivers before they enter the tunnel.

As a state with robust populations of wildlife, Montana has had its share of roadkill. Its Department of Transportation developed animal shelving, a type of wildlife crossing, to enable safe passage for small animals who need to cross the road. The measure, combined with other types of crossings, has reduced animal-vehicle collisions by half.

Volunteers from the Harris Center for Conservation Education in New Hampshire spend spring nights helping amphibians cross the road safely. The volunteers work during mass amphibian migration periods and collect data on the species they see for conservation efforts.

Across the United States, cities are designing ways for wildlife to cross major roadways. Whether they’re overpasses crossing highways or tunnels under freeways, these helpful pathways are strategically placed to help save the most wildlife. Seeing huge successes, including a casualty rate decline of close to 94% – conservationists are calling for more legislation to help protect and maintain such efforts.

Many wildlife are killed each year as they are hit by cars when crossing highways. Montana built crossing structures over high risk sections of highways, such as grass covered tunnels, for animals to cross safely and reduce car accidents.

The Netherlands built nearly 3,000 wildlife crossings over and under roads, railways, and waterways to reduce habitat fragmentation, allowing wildlife to roam freely without becoming roadkill.

Conservationists and scientists eradicated invasive rats from Tetiaroa Atoll in French Polynesia with targeted rat poison bates. The island’s wildlife, including endangered species, and its ecosystem have flourished in response.

The bighorn sheep population in Nebraska has gone from eradicated to 320 and growing thanks to conservation efforts by scientists, conservationists, and the public. The sheep were reintroduced from populations in other states and are kept under close watch through processes like collaring and lambing.