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Wildlife crossings are the lifeblood of Canadian grizzly bears

author:Joba he dude
Wildlife crossings are the lifeblood of Canadian grizzly bears

Wildlife crossings around the world

The trans-Canada highway runs through Canada's Banff National Park, creating significant obstacles for animals to cross their territory. But according to local conservation group Y2Y, wildlife underpasses and overpasses have reduced road crashes by more than 80 percent.

Wildlife crossings are the lifeblood of Canadian grizzly bears

Every autumn, on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, 40 to 50 million red crabs crawl out of the forests where they live and scramble to the shore to mate. To prevent the red crab swarm from paralyzing traffic, Christmas Island National Park built 31 underground passages, as well as this near-vertical crab bridge.

Wildlife crossings are the lifeblood of Canadian grizzly bears

The $87 million Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Passage is scheduled to break ground in Los Angeles in April 2022. Mountain lions and other animals will soon have a safe passage through the 10 lanes of Highway 101 that will connect Simi Mountains with the Santa Monica Mountains.

Wildlife crossings are the lifeblood of Canadian grizzly bears

Salamanders thrive in Canada's dense forests, but roads often cut off their migration routes, and crossing them can be deadly. This culvert outside Toronto was created to protect amphibians. Similar crossings in Waterton Lake National Park are also equipped with skylights to help salamanders navigate in the dark.

Wildlife crossings are the lifeblood of Canadian grizzly bears

Singapore is one of the densest urban spaces in the world, but parts of the country are undergoing a re-barbaric transformation. The Manli Wildlife Bridge reconnects two parts of the nature reserve, which contains dozens of rare species such as sambar deer and common palm civets.

Wildlife crossings are the lifeblood of Canadian grizzly bears

Turtles in Kobe, Japan, once faced a dangerous journey across the city rail into a pond: when the tracks switched, they were often trapped between them and killed. These shallow tunnels make enough room for turtles to freely pass under the tracks.

Wildlife crossings are the lifeblood of Canadian grizzly bears

As deforestation erodes their natural habitat, sloths in some parts of Costa Rica have difficulty finding branches swinging between them, and eventually they may cross the road at the mercy of cars and dogs. Not only can a simple rope bridge help sloths traverse the forest, but monkeys and possums have also been seen using them.

Wildlife crossings are the lifeblood of Canadian grizzly bears

In the U.S. state of Washington, the 15-mile-long Highway 1-90 has four underground passages, four more under construction, and bridges of full vegetation — including the Keepchelus overpass. Deer are one of the beneficiaries.

How do grizzly bears cross the street?

There are difficulties. A young male grizzly bear, Lingenpolter, spent 46 attempts to safely cross Montana's Interstate 90.

It wore a GPS tracker installed by researchers, and between the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021, the bear was spotted approaching the highway again and again, but always turning back. Until the end, he was lucky enough to cross the road under a bridge north of the town of Drummond.

Lingenpolter's story is not unusual. Busy highways are a dangerous obstacle for animals that need space to roam. If they cross, they run the risk of being hit by a vehicle, but not crossing limits the animal's range of motion, causing the population to split and decrease.

To avoid bears like this crossing highways, parks authorities in Canada built underground passages and overpasses to provide safe passage.

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"(The highway) is a real barrier to a wide variety of different wildlife," said Jodi Hilty, president and chief scientist at Y2Y, whose program aims to protect the primary habitat of 2,000 miles of land between Yellowstone National Park and the Yukon in the United States. Northwest Canada. Connectivity is essential for species to survive — "maintaining their genes, finding the resources they need, and helping maintain healthy populations," she adds.

A simple and effective way to overcome these obstacles is wildlife crossings – bridges or underground passageways that provide safe passage for animals to cross highways. Y2Y helped pioneer this approach within its scope.

From the northwestern United States to the Arctic Circle, there are nearly 120 wildlife crossings within a 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) radius of the region

Wildlife crossings are the lifeblood of Canadian grizzly bears

"When Y2Y began in 1993, the wildlife crossing structure was completely zero. Today, there are 117,"

In April, Ground was broken on Route 118 – the Bow Valley Interchange will cross Alberta's Trans-Canada Highway.

Pressure points

The highway is nearly 5,000 miles long and passes through some of the country's most scenic landscapes, including the majestic Canadian Rockies and breathtaking Banff National Park – home to grizzly bears, wolves, elk, deer and other wildlife.

According to Y2Y, 22,000 cars use the road every day, and in the summer, when tourists flock to the area's natural beauty, that number increases to more than 30,000. But this traffic that breaks into the wilderness causes a large number of wild animals to collide with vehicles.

Wildlife crossings are the lifeblood of Canadian grizzly bears

The trans-Canada Highway passes through the stunning views of Alberta.

On a 25-mile highway with no fences or wildlife crossings, Y2Y records about 70 road fatalities a year — the true number is probably much higher because injured animals often leave the road and die later.

However, in places with wildlife crossings and roadside fencing, the number of road deaths has been significantly reduced. Take Banff National Park, for example, which has 41 underpasses and seven overpasses spanning 55 miles of highways. Here, wildlife-vehicle collisions have been reduced by more than 80 percent, and elk and deer collisions have been reduced by more than 96 percent.

Jesse Whittington, a Parks Canada wildlife ecologist who manages Banff National Park, said that in addition to helping the animals, crossing "improves people's safety."

Whittington has been studying the impact of pedestrian crossings in and around the park for years. Camera traps capture which animals are using them, while radio collars on grizzly bears and wolves show how intersections can help enable long-range movement.

Wildlife crossings are the lifeblood of Canadian grizzly bears

Footage from a fixed camera shows a bear and its cubs in an underground passage in Alberta.

He said the animals wouldn't immediately know where the intersection was, but the highway fence — with a foundation two meters underground so the animals couldn't dig under it — helped lead them toward it. Over time, grizzly bears and wolves learned to use border crossings and passed on this knowledge to future generations.

According to Whittington, Parks Canada has recorded 187,000 animal uses of flyovers and underpasses since 1996 — "which shows that these cross-structures are valid." ”

Hilty says Banff National Park and the Y2Y project set an example for others.

"I really hope that our model will continue to be adopted because I think together we can make sure that both people and nature can thrive," she said. ”

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For bears, highways can be dangerous places

In 2021, the U.S. government announced the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which will provide $350 million over five years to build wildlife bridges, tunnels, fences, and other infrastructure. In April, construction began on the world's largest wildlife lane, which will span more than 10 lanes of Route 101 in northwest Los Angeles, connecting Simi Mountains with the Santa Monica Mountains and providing more roaming space for wildlife such as mountain lions.

Hilty hopes that the use of wildlife crossings will become standard practice globally. "We need to get to a point where when roads are busy, we create safe passages for wildlife to become part of normal social practice," she said.

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