| Critters Shun Adirondack
Wildlife Corridors
May 23, 2003 New York, New York (ENS) - Using surveillance and other tracking techniques, researchers at the Wildlife Conservation Society have found that underpasses, at least in New York's Adirondack Mountain region, are not being used by animals. Their study, published today in the "Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies," logged only four raccoons passing through one of 19 culverts observed. The culverts are supposed to offer animals a safe way to pass under highways without running the risk of becoming road kill. The authors say the study points out that new interstate highways planned for the region, including the proposed Adirondack expressway from Watertown, New York, to Plattsburgh, New York, would take a heavy toll on wildlife. "Any cost benefit analysis regarding the proposed Rooftop Highway must consider not only immediate costs to wildlife in terms of road kills and population isolation, but also the added budgetary considerations needed to attempt to mitigate these costs," said Scott LaPoint, lead author of the study. LaPoint and his team set up camera traps and used tracking techniques to record animals using both drainage culverts and underpasses designed for wildlife and human use. Highway underpasses, or "critter corridors" are being tried in a variety of places around the country, but the jury is still out on whether they will help keep wildlife from being killed along highways and roads. Passage rates in the New York study were much lower than the moderate success rates found in a similar Florida corridor system. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) study came to no conclusions that explain why wildlife avoid the passageways, but some researchers suspect that with all terrain vehicles (ATV) that use the culverts might scare them away. More than 20 ATVs passed through the culverts being studied. Others speculate that wildlife simply might not like the underpasses. WCS researcher and study co-author Dr. Justina Ray said, "A highway engineer's view of a nice underpass may be quite different from that of a white-tailed deer." |