February 20, 2014

Study: Bears Find Love at Highway Crossings

As human development continues to encroach on nature, there’s now a proven solution for how wildlife and highways can peacefully co-exist. Wildlife crossings are commonly used to protect the migration routes of various species. A new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B presents the first evidence that they actually work, according to Discover Magazine.

Focusing on the Bow Valley area of Banff National Park in Canada, researchers spent three years studying how grizzly and black bears used the wildlife crossings. During a highway expansion project in the 1990s, crews built two overpasses and 23 underpasses to preserve the free movement of wildlife through the popular park. From over 10,000 DNA samples collected in the area, researchers determined the highway crossings were not only busy for bears, they helped them to find mates.

Image credit: USFWS Mountain Prairie/Flickr

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