Each day, thousands of animals face one of the most deadly predators in America — a road.
More than 4 million miles of public roads across the U.S. provide vital links for commerce, services, and travel, but they’re treacherous barriers for wildlife seeking food, water, and mates. Exposed and unsure about the noisy, unfamiliar terrain presented by an open road, an animal that hesitates or misjudges the speed of an approaching vehicle risks fatal consequences.
Unfortunately, those encounters are all too common on busy roadways. According to the Federal Highway Administration, there are more than 1 million wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) every year in the U.S. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of animals killed and maimed, WVCs also result in hundreds of human fatalities and tens of thousands of injuries.
Collisions are expensive, too, costing more than $8 billion annually in vehicle repairs, medical costs, and carcass removal. The Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University gives sobering stats for the average cost of a single crash: $19,089 for a deer, $73,196 for an elk, $110,397 for a moose, and $82,646 for cattle and horses.
Roads can also disrupt migratory routes, divide up ecosystems, and inhibit intermingling, confining entire species to ever-shrinking habitats. A report by the U.S. Department of Transportation found that these crashes are among the biggest threats to the survival of 21 threatened or endangered animal species, from reptiles like the desert tortoise to mammals like the San Joaquin kit fox.
