One of the largest wildlife crossings in the world is being built right now in Los Angeles, California. The goal is to help wildlife live and navigate a huge urban area. It will be layered with soil and native foliage to entice animals to use it so they can safely cross over 10 lanes of highway and protect them from death.
This huge project will allow animals to resume traveling between various habitats they need to reach – habitats that are currently cut off by human roadways.
If Los Angeles – a giant and sprawling city – can do this, so can other cities near major wildlife habitats. Sign the petition to demand other major cities enact similar plans to help animals!
Living near urban areas is extremely dangerous for wild animals. It can lead to them dead on highways, and cut off from prime feeding, mating, and migration areas. For example, mountain lions (also called cougars) generally need 150-200 miles to roam as their territory. But highways inhibit this freedom, caging animals in a much smaller – and more deadly – area.
In some cases, they end up trying to make their home among the streets and city parks surrounding human apartment buildings, which isn’t safe for humans or wildlife. One famous mountain lion in LA ended up stranded in exactly this way, trapped inside a park until he was hit by a car, sustained severe injuries, and had to be euthanized. Even though none of this was his fault!
Not only does this hurt individual animals, but it also harms their larger populations. In the LA-area Santa Monica Mountains, research has suggested that cougars there “have among the lowest genetic diversity of any mountain lion population ever documented,” according to the U.S. National Parks Service.
In Los Angeles, the wildlife impacted include bobcats, cougars, coyotes, deer, toads, lizards, snakes, and even ants.
Wildlife didn’t ask for humans to come tear into their backyards, cut up their territory, and build houses and highways. These animals didn’t do anything wrong! But they’re still suffering as the result of our actions.
That’s why it’s so important for other major cities to follow LA’s example and build massive wildlife crossings to keep animals safe from the cities we have created.
Sign the petition now!
This article by Mathew Davis was first published by One Green Planet on 5 June 2024. Image Credit :SritanaN/ShuttersImage Credit :Maarten Zeehandelaar/Shutterstock
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