This is Bird Note.

Roads can get people where they need to go, but they often run right through wildlife habitat,

creating a deadly hazard for animals on the move.

Liz Hillard, who's the senior wildlife biologist for Wildlands Network,

says Roadkill takes a huge toll every year.

The numbers are absolutely staggering, so it's estimated that tens of millions of bird reptiles

amphibians and mammals are killed per year on US roadways.

And for birds specifically, a recent study just estimated that between 89 million and

340 million birds die annually in vehicle collisions on US roads.

Beyond that, roads also separate animals from mates and make it harder to get to food.

Wildlands Network helps transportation agencies create

wildlife friendly designs and build animal-centric bridges

and tunnels for their safe crossing.

This cuts down on car accidents for people too. And enough of these

crossings helps reconnect habitats. So they once again form a seamless landscape

that Liz and her colleagues call a wild way.

What I'd really like to see is that this is just mandated.

Anytime you're building a road,

anytime you have a road project,

we need to consider that a wildlife mitigation tool or solution needs to be put in place there.

Learn more about how researchers are rethinking roads to make them safer for wildlife and people on a special season of the Bring Birds Back

podcast.

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