Provide Safe Passage

Introduction

Lack of connectivity in habitats can cause genetic diversity to disappear until isolated species become inbred and/or diseased and eventually extinct. Fences, and roads can simply cut off access to other areas or cause needless deaths. In places like North America, deer populations have starved to death because of cattle farmers fencing the wildlife into areas without sufficient food or water sources.


Other dangers to animals include glue traps (a particular danger to birds on their migratory routes, especially where illegal glue trapping is common), forgotten poacher snares, poisons which are generally left of "pest" species such as snails or rodents. Even if wildlife doesn't eat those poisons directly, they can easily suffer contact poisoning or die from eating poisoned prey. Birds of prey such as endangered eagles have been poisoned by eating rodents, and fireflies risk extinction in part because the snails and slugs their larva eat are commonly poisoned by gardeners who don't understand the systemic fall out of using chemical "solutions".


Competition for Resources - a major reason that governments and farmers want wildlife dead or fenced away from their land is because they see wild animals as in competition for resources. In the example of Tule dear on Tomales point it is important to note that the unfenced populations of deer did not suffer mass mortalities. However the ones fenced in "to avoid conflict with cattle ranchers ended up dying in mass because of lack of food and water because. Cattle are known to be one of the most water intensive of food types. These mass deer starvation events have happened multiple times in the last decade, back in 2012, 2014.


In 2015, this paper explained that "Cattle ranchers who enjoy heavily subsidized cattle grazing leases on public lands within the national seashore are lobbying the Park Service to remove or fence out the free-roaming elk from ranching areas, because elk are eating grass they believe should be reserved solely for their cattle. The Park Service is considering evicting the free-roaming elk under a planning process initiated for 28,000 acres of leased dairy and beef cattle ranches within the park and Golden Gate National Recreation Area lands in Marin County administered by the national seashore. The Park Service is also proposing extending ranching leases for up to 20 years, and may allow ranchers to expand their operations to animals other than cattle, which would create more conflicts between livestock and native wildlife." It also explained that "There are 13 cows for every elk in the national seashore, with nearly 6,500 dairy and beef cattle and only 498 elk. One-quarter of the national seashore is devoted to commercial cattle operations, with grazing on nearly 18,000 acres under 39 leases. Ten ranching families were paid $19.6 million by the public from 1963 to 1978 for the purchase of ranch lands added to Point Reyes National Seashore. Many of those same families still enjoy heavily subsidized grazing lease rates within the park, paying one-half to one-third the cost they would pay for non-federal grazing land in Marin."

Barriers of Passage

Until we have a good sense of which dangers cause the most damage, this section is listed alphabetically. Coincidentally it does seem like they might accidentally be listed from worst offenders to lesser offenders, since light travels the furthest and causes problems spreading out into our oceans and distant forests, luring birds, insects, and turtles away from safe habitats. Farm land accounts for about 50% of Earths habitable pace, so fencing could likely be the second worst offender. Roads are widespread, so they may be almost equal to fencing in their harm (though possible worse?). Traps are meant to kill or can cause victims to starve, but they may be more of a problem than people realize when accounting for ghost nets and other fishing gear clocking our waterways, lakes, and oceans.

EMFs

Countries around the world are switching to HVDC and HVAC cables for their major electricity projects, but unfortunately these give off EMFs which can influence the migration patterns and other behaviors of marine life. - https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1633088 

Fake Spider Webbing

The fake spider webbing that people put up as decoration during Halloween is made from synthetic fibers which entrap a variety of species including birds (especially owls), bees, butterflies, and squirrels.

If you are going to use the decoration, then keep it close to the front door or other highly-visible, high-traffic areas so that any animals will be seen and helped quickly, instead of dying slowly in hard-to-reach places. Any live animals should be taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center.

Other safer places including indoors and around windows. Never hand the fake webbing across wide areas, such as between trees or over bushes where wild animals are most likely to get entangled.

Light Pollution

Can lure, blind, startle, and scare animals from their habitats or migratory routes. Baby turtles go inland towards cities and roads instead of out to see, following the moon and stars. Migratory birds can be dazzled by bright lights, lasers, fireworks, blinking lights, and flood lights. Insects have flooded into cities like Las Vegas, lured by the lights, then died in mass numbers in the streets instead of performing their job as food for species in the surrounding wilderness.

Fences & Walls

Farms & Ranches

46% of habitable land is used for farming, and 77% of that land is used for livestock. This makes livestock grazing and feed production the most land-hungry human activity on the planet, with only 1% of land being used for urban buildup.

According to the graph here, livestock have replaced 31% of Earth's historical forests and grasslands. In Europe famers used walls built from rocks or hedges of thick bushes to contain livestock. The USA invented barbed wire fencing which can entangle and even kills wildlife.

General Borders on the Rise

Borders on the Rise: The Unintended Evolutionary Consequences of Border Barriers on Natural Populations "Human-made barriers reduce animal movement and gene flow through multiple mechanisms, including changing movement directly by physical obstruction and indirectly through behavioral avoidance, or by killing migrants through entanglement (i.e., getting tangled or caught in a barrier) and direct strikes (i.e., hitting a barrier directly, which causes injury and death). These mechanisms can operate independently or in combination to reduce gene flow between populations separated by a barrier."

Noise Pollution

This can be generated by traffic on roadways, in the air, and under water (especially from ocean shipping lanes). Using quieter transportation such as electric cars instead of ICEs, blimps instead of planes, and moving shipping lanes away from reefs or ocean migratory routes, we can help protect many species. Pollinators near highways suffer from noise pollution, as do plankton, reef species, whales and dolphins from noise pollution caused by commercial and tourism activities.

When building off shore energy projects such as wind turbines, wave or tidal energy, many companies are now turning to bubble curtains to help dampen or eliminate their noise pollution. In some regions, this is already baked into law, but ideally this method should be implemented for any offshore or aquatic construction projects.

Roadways

These bisect habitats, both creating a deadly barrier to passage which can hurt anything that flies, crawls, or swims (since many culverts and bridges create unsafe or impassable spaces).

Roadways can also help invasive species access remote locations (especially true with logging roads into old growth forests) such as the Amazon Rainforest, and even helps predators access areas they'd usually avoid which has been seen with wolves and caribou in Canada.

Traps

The Dangers of Glue Traps "Each year, countless animals are unintentionally caught in glue traps or “glue boards”. Glue traps are typically sheets or tubes covered in an extremely sticky glue; the traps are traditionally meant to capture flying insects, like wasps or flies (when hung up high) or rodents (when placed on the ground).


When an insect or animal is caught in this trap, its death is not quick or painless. Often, the animal struggles against the glue in an attempt to free itself, and eventually succumbs to injuries, exhaustion, starvation, or dehydration during a period of a few hours or several days.


Sticky traps are indiscriminate and often catch animals that are the unintended victims of the trap – typically birds, snakes and lizards, and small mammals. In the cases of wider glue boards, even larger mammals have been stuck to traps and suffer injuries or fur loss when pulling free.


When hung outside of a home or in a barn, these traps (often in the form of tubes or strips of paper) catch not only wasps, but other flying animals, such as owls, bats, flying squirrels, and songbirds who accidentally fly into the glue trap, sometimes in an attempt to eat the insects that are stuck to the glue."

Solutions

Darkness

Bright lights can startle and disorient many wild species including bats (who help us by eating between 1,000 to 4,000 insects per night), migratory birds, moths who pollinate our food, and fireflies who eat problematic bugs like slugs and snails. Some species will totally avoid lit areas, barring them from food, water, and migratory routes, while others are attracted to lights. These species will fly into suburban areas where they can easily be injured, disoriented, lost, or even killed.  Artificial lights can act as lures which make endangered species easy targets for their predators.

Fencing & Boundaries

Frog Ladders

"A small group of British conservationists are installing mesh- covered ladders in roadside drains to save trapped amphibians from certain death." - Insider

Around the world small amphibians including frogs, as well as other small animals get stuck in roadside drains, ponds, and swimming pools. 

When we install small, secure ladders or include other objects like logs or rocks to help them climb out, we reduce the chances of them dying from starvation, or drowning for non-amphibians like baby ducks, pets, snakes, or rodents.

Glue Traps

Hunters along Migratory Routs

Roadways


Not all animals feel safe using wildlife bridges. Some species will only use underpasses or culverts. Unfortunately many old-fashioned culverts aren't wildlife friendly, but building little wooden shelves was found to help a variety of mouse species and other small animals. Scientists have been developing animal-friendly ramps for small and short-legged animals.


We can also make roads safer by reducing light brightness and other modifications to reduce light pollution. Bright lights not only dazzle and blind other drivers, but cause accidents when (rather famously) a dear will stop "like a dear in headlights" in the middle of a road. Inappropriate lighting can scare animals away, or draws other species like insects and baby turtles where they end up being disoriented so that they get pummeled by traffic or eaten by predators instead of swimming out to sea.

Guidelines for Creating & Upgrading Wildlife-Friendly Crossings

Stepping Stone Ponds

One study of the European tree frog (Hyla arborea) found that "Collecting buccal material of 85 frogs sampled at newly built stepping-stone ponds, we identified source populations of migrating frogs by means of 11 microsatellite markers. Results show that new ponds were colonized within one year, and that the number of colonising frogs increased with the new ponds' age. Some migrating individuals originated from small or distant populations (up to 5 km), and even crossed expected barriers such as a river. The landscape in the study area appeared thus quite permeable to tree frogs. Our measures revealed that building new stepping-stone breeding ponds is an efficient and successful conservation action."

Trap Removal

Trap removal can be dangerous work, but it's important. Some organizations rely on volunteers, while others pay villagers or other at-risk people to remove traps including ghost gear (lost or dumped fishing nets, lobster traps, fishing lines and hooks, etc.).

Asia

Laos

North America

USA

Louisiana

Texas

Oceana

Australia

Wildlife Corridors

Please visit our Wildlife Corridor page for more information on planning and placement.

Marine Ecosystems

Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) should be a term everyone in the shipping industry and coastal communities should try to learn about and implement. Marine spatial planning is important for keeping potential oil shipments from spilling in environmentally critical locations, or tourists from taking kayaking lessons in the middle of a mesh of wave energy converters. Theoretically it could even help keep the fishing industry from bottom trawling coral reefs or throwing massive nets out in whale migration corridors if governments put more resources into monitoring and prosecuting illegal activities. From what I've read the shipping industry is supposed to slow down or go around areas with manatees, whales, and other species they might collide with, though switching back to wind power is also a good way to prevent slicing animals with propellers.

Window Collisions

"Try some of the following ideas to make your windows safer. To deter small birds, vertical markings on windows need to be spaced no more than 4 inches apart and horizontal markings no more than 2 inches apart across the entire window. (If hummingbirds are a problem, the spacing should be reduced to a 2-inch by 2-inch grid.) All marking techniques should be applied to the outside of the window.


Tempera paint or soap [bold]. Mark the outside of the window with soap or tempera paint, which is inexpensive and long lasting. You can use either a grid pattern no more than 4 inches by 2 inches (see above), or get creative and paint patterns or artwork on your window.


Decals - Put decals, stickers, sun catchers, Mylar strips, masking tape, or other objects (even sticky notes) on the outside surface of the window. These are only effective when spaced very closely (see above). Note that hawk silhouettes do little to deter birds. Remember: placing just one or two window stickers on a large window is not going to prevent collisions—they must cover most of the glass with the spaces between too narrow for birds to fly through.



If you’re building a new home or remodeling, the following ideas can also be good alternatives: 

How To Help A Window Collision Victim

If you find a bird dazed from a window collision, examine it for external injuries. If the wings are both held properly, neither dangling, and the eyes seem normal, see if it can perch in a branch unassisted. If so, leave it to recover on its own.


If the bird has a noticeable injury, get it to a wildlife rehabilitator as quickly as possible. Broken bones usually need proper attention within minutes or hours to heal properly without surgery. Use this online directory to find a rehabber near you.


Meanwhile, place it in a dark container such as a shoebox, and leave it somewhere quiet, out of reach of pets and other predators, for 15 minutes. If the weather is extremely cold, you may need to take it inside, but don’t keep the bird too warm. Do not try to give it food and water, and resist handling it. The darkness will calm the bird while it revives, which should occur within a few minutes unless it is seriously injured. Do not open the box indoors to check on it or it might escape into your house and be hard to get back out!


Take the box outside every 15 minutes or so and open it—if the bird flies off, that’s that! If it doesn’t recover in a couple of hours, take it to a wildlife rehabilitator. Remember that, technically, it is illegal to handle a migratory bird without a permit, and medically helping an injured bird requires training, so your job is just to transport the bird to a rehabilitator." - https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/why-birds-hit-windows-and-how-you-can-help-prevent-it/#:~:text=Cover%20the%20glass%20on%20the,but%20will%20bounce%20off%20unharmed 

Further Reading

Maps

International

Africa

Asia

Europe

Russia


North America

Oceana

South America

South America Wildlife Migrations this isn't a map, but a list of species that migrate and which South or Central American countries they pass through or migrate to.

Guides

Studies

Groups

International

UK

England

North America

Canada

Flap Canada "Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) Canada is a registered Canadian charity widely recognized as the pre-eminent authority on the bird-building collision issue.

Each year in Canada, around 25 million migratory birds die as a direct result of collisions with buildings. We can only expect that number to grow unless we all work together to help mitigate local biodiversity loss through urban development that considers wildlife species.

For almost 30 years, FLAP Canada has engaged millions of people with dozens of campaigns and initiatives with one goal: keep birds safe from deadly collisions with buildings."

USA