Squashed

Some news from Canada.

The federal parks agency plans to install tunnels under a stretch of highway at a cost of about C$40,000 ($38,000) to end years of carnage among the long-toed salamander of Waterton Lakes National Park in southern Alberta.

The project is aimed at diverting the 13 cm (5 inch) long amphibians under the pavement during their nocturnal journeys between a mountainside and a lake where they breed.

The population in the area is pegged in the hundreds or low thousands, and mortality rates due to being squashed by cars and trucks have been estimated at 10 percent to 40 percent, said Cyndi Smith, a Parks Canada conservation biologist.

They only make the roughly 800-metre (875-yard) trek at night when it rains, making them nearly impossible to see from behind the wheel.

"It would be one thing if we didn't know this was happening, but we know this mortality is happening. It's right here in front of us," Smith said.

I remember a similar proposal twenty years ago for tunnels in the Everglades for Florida Panthers. Do these things really work? This website claimed it did in case of the Panthers here in Florida.

Linked to- Amboy Times, Is it just me?, Leaning Straight Up, Rosemary, Woman Honor Thyself,