Salamander Crossing to Provide Squish-Free Passage

Here in the UK we use one foot dia, pipes under all major roads that are known frog and toad crossings when they are going to their spawning pools.

We also have special road signs on smaller roads when the spawning season starts, this is so motorists can slow down when these animals are crossing the road.

Spencer.

Going slowly just creates a longer ssssqqqqqqquuuiiiiissssssssssshhhhhhhh.

Hey Scapolie,

That's very interesting that your Department of Transportation actually has road signs put up when the amphibian migration season starts. I wish we had that here in the States or at least in Upsate New York.

I do research every Spring at the Saratoga National Historical Park in Saratoga Springs, NY tracking the migration of frogs and salamanders to and from their oviposition sites. There is a tour road that runs through the park and a major US route that runs through the very eastern portion of the National Park lands. Right now there are no pipes running underneath these roads and no signs indicating that there are migratory routes running across those roads. Hopefully, the research I'm helping with will get these migration routes "piped."

I was witness to another case where infrastructure piping would have been a good idea when a major 4 lane highway was built through the Montezuma National Refuge in western New York. One Summer, the wetlands in the refuge had become so dry that the giant tortoises that lived in the refuge, were migrating across the four-lane highway(!) to find deeper wetlands. I, unfortunately, saw a couple tortoises turned over on their backs in the middle of the highway while tractor trailers were speeding by them at 80 mph (~130km/h)! I wish there were pipes under Interstate 90 and those areas like the refuge to allow animals to migrate in extreme conditions.

J Loz

It's "Be Kind to the Wildlife" in Canada year.

Evidently nobody thought about the salamanders, when that kerbing was designed and installed.

Kind Regards....