Canopy Bridges – Wildlife Bridges in the Trees
As humans push further into the wilderness, the creatures that live there are increasingly isolated by roads. Wildlife corridors with ground bridges and new canopy bridges in the trees provide these animals access to areas they’ve been cut off from.
Most people know of wildlife corridors, the green routes that wildlife can traverse to avoid being islanded or cut off from their historic migration routes and neighbouring populations.
Wildlife highway crossings have been a part of these corridors for some time, offering land-based animals safe passage across major highways, helping to avoid injury to the animals and humans in cars. But what about the creatures that live in the tree canopy? The ones that do not venture to the ground are stuck in their locations, unable to connect with other wildlife populations or ranges.
Roads and highways can create big problems for these arboreal animals, as they are separated from essential resources such as food, shelter and mates. To provide a solution, canopy bridges offer the potential to let these animals traverse roads safely while maintaining connectivity between populations. There is a growing interest in this type of bridge. Although its design and implementation can be complex, conservationists and practitioners can work hand-in-hand to build practical solutions so that forest creatures have an unblocked route to reach all their needs.
“For arboreal animals, the barrier effect is profound. They will not cross on the ground. So that means we’re slicing and dicing their habitat into tinier and tinier pieces,” said Tremaine Gregory, an ecologist at the Smithsonian Institute, in a recent article by Mongabay. “They’re isolated from the resources that could be [just] on the other side of the road. Everything from food and shelter to mates.”
There is a simple solution available in many locations: a canopy bridge. A single rope or ladder-like structure can fill these gaps and allow animals to cross over roads. Because they can be inexpensive and simple, researchers and other groups can easily deploy them.
Like the wildlife bridges used for land-based animals, canopy bridges create a bottleneck effect, routing migrating species through a smaller area. In addition to facilitating the movement of animals, each crossing is an opportunity for researchers to study the habits of these often elusive animals and obtain valuable conservation information, including the ability to document species numbers and obtain really cool wildlife photos.
Simple problems require simple solutions. With some common sense, we can help out wildlife adapt to increased pressure from humans and find peace in the places they call home.
