Monday 5 August 2013

How Do The Bears Cross The Road?


Have you ever wondered how bears cross the road?  Here in Nova Scotia, they walk out into the road and this is not generally a problem, as except in the very rural areas, there are not that many of them about.  I've only ever seen them once and that was a black bear and her two cubs early one morning on a deserted road in Cape Breton.  She saw them safely across the road and we were all happy, though for different reasons ~ I was delighted to have this rare glimpse of them from the safety of our car.

However, just imagine the chaos if the much larger grizzly bears were wandering about in the road, especially on the major highways.  In Alberta, they have come up with this ingenious idea of animal bridges.  Much like pedestrian bridges, except that they have covered them in vegetation and fenced to keep the animals from harm. 

We didn't see any bears on them, but I suspect that they are used more during the hours of darkness.  Incidentally, the rest of the highway is fenced to discourage wildlife from wandering into the traffic.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Marie! It has been too long since I visited with you. I have been organizing my bookmarks and just put you in a new one. Hopefully I will stop in now more often.

    We have wildlife bridges all over Holland. Now they are lining the roads through wooded areas with a special paving stone the wild boar do not like to walk over to keep them off the road. No bears here but boar and elk are often on the roads.

    Hugs from Holland ~
    Heidi

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