Animals Need Infrastructure Too

Sometimes the only thing that keeps a slithering salamander from becoming a squashed one is a little attention to infrastructure.

As cars take over paths that used to belong to the wild, moving through space as a rodent, a lizard, or something higher up the food chain can turn deadly, fast. Experts estimate cars in the U.S. collide with large animals over 1 million times per year, costing over $8 billion in repairs and injuries. To help animals navigate our fast-paced highway systems (and avoid turning into roadkill in the process), nature conservationists have started building wildlife bridges and tunnels, designed especially for critters. These designs aren’t only intended to help animals evade death. They’re used to facilitate gene flow (read: migration) that could be stunted by a highway.