Over the course of three decades, 44 wildlife crossings, including 38 underpasses and six overpasses, were built across the highway.
“It was a huge safety problem,” Sawaya said in a phone interview. Subsequently, fencing was added on both sides of the highway to reduce collisions between vehicles and wildlife. While the analysis couldn’t determine whether crossing the highway made animals more successful breeders, at first glance it seemed that might be the case, the paper said.Īccording to Parks Canada, the 83 kilometres of the Trans-Canada Highway passing through Banff were upgraded to a four-lane divided highway from two lanes in 1981. That male, he observed, “certainly has found that he has increased his own breeding opportunities by having access to both sides of the highway.” One black bear male in the study, mated with at least five different females and fathered at least 11 offspring while crossing back and forth, said Michael Sawaya, lead author of the study published Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Now, a new genetic analysis of bear hair samples by researchers at Montana State University shows the bears are indeed crossing the highway to mate with bears on the other side.
That, in turn, could lead to isolation and inbreeding.Īnd while Parks Canada found that the fencing and 44 crossings did reduce wildlife collisions by 80 per cent, it wasn’t clear whether animals used the crossings to find mates. Scientists had previously been concerned that the highway, which is fenced on both sides through Banff National Park , might block animals from breeding with others of their species on the other side of the highway. Grizzly and black bears are looking for love on both sides of the Trans-Canada Highway, and using wildlife crossings to rendezvous with members of the opposite sex, a new study confirms. It took grizzlies about five years to get used to the wildlife crossings and begin using them regularly. Continuous fencing between underpasses may further reduce the number of vehicle collisions for deer but additional design features (e.g., buried fencing) should be considered for other wildlife species.Photo credit: CBC News. Based on collision reports from adjacent highway sections, the new section of United States Highway 64 experienced approximately 58% fewer wildlife mortalities (primarily white-tailed deer), suggesting underpasses and fencing reduced the number of deer–vehicle collisions. With greater distance from an underpass, animals with smaller home ranges seemed less likely to reach the underpass and instead attempted to climb over or crawl under fencing. However, we also documented more mortalities in fenced areas compared with unfenced areas. Within fenced highway segments, mortalities were lowest near underpasses and increased with distance from the underpasses. After completion of the highway, we documented wildlife mortality due to vehicle collisions during a 13-month period and recorded 128 incidences representing ≥24 species. We recorded 3,614 wildlife crossings of ≥20 species based on track counts, representing most medium and large mammals known to occur in the area and several reptiles and birds. Adjusting for differences in number of monitoring days, white-tailed deer use of underpass areas averaged 6.7 times greater after the new highway and underpasses were completed. Following completion of the highway, we collected 2,433 photographs of 9 species with deer representing 93% of all crossings. We recorded 242 occasions of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) use of underpass areas before highway construction began. We used camera and track surveys to evaluate wildlife use before and after construction of 3 wildlife underpasses and associated fencing on a new section of United States Highway 64 in Washington County, North Carolina, USA.
#Highway underpass wildlife driver#
Transportation planners are increasingly incorporating roadway design features to mitigate impacts of highways on wildlife and to increase driver safety.
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