Road accidents threaten humans as well as animals

Dai Qiang, a researcher from the Chengdu Institute of Biology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said animal road deaths are an increasing problem throughout the world. "Many wild animals are killed by speeding vehicles. Over the past 40 years the death toll of wild animals from traffic accidents has exceeded that of hunting. In the Netherlands, about 20,000 birds were killed in road accidents every year in 1980s and in 1990s. Meanwhile in the United States about 200 motorists are killed in animal-vehicle collisions every year."

Two wild animals killed by speeding vehicles on the Ruo'ergai Highway in southwest China's Sichuan Province, and a traffic sign set up on the road requesting drivers to slow down as they approach a crossing-place for wild animals. [Photo from www.wwfchina.org]

Since 2006, Dai and his working group have been engaged in a study of "highway ecology" in the Ruo'ergai Wetland in southwest China's Sichuan Province. At the end of 2008, they completed their report on the impact of highways on amphibious creatures living in the Ruo'ergai Frigid Zone and proposed some protective measures.

They investigated 522 sample roads to observe the living conditions of wild animals, focusing on three types of local frog: Rana kukunoris, Nanorana pleskei, and Bufo minshanicus. The species are native to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and of particular importance to the local ecological system.

According to the study, the population of the frogs has been declining in recent years and one reason is the toll of road deaths. A large number of dead frogs are usually found on the highways on rainy days, with the largest numbers in sections where protective roadside barriers are breached.

Highways also pose a deadly danger to other wild animals like the Himalayan marmot, polecat, and plateau pika, Pyrrhocorax pyr-rhocorax, with exhaust emissions further exacerbating the problem.

China Comment reported that in 2008 a 500-kilometer highway was built in Malai County in southwest China's Qinghai Province linking to the Qinghai-Tibet Highway. Since then, dead pikas are often found on the road. In May 2008 a reporter from the magazine witnessed an incident when swarms of bees and butterflies were plastered on the windscreens of vehicles passing along a highway in Henan Province.

Ecological awareness in road construction

Researcher Dai Qiang suggests an environmental impact appraisal and ecological protective measures be included in any road construction plan. One effective measure is to close off any gaps through which wild animals can get across roads, and the other is to build more passages for wild animals to go under them.

A traffic sign on the Qinghai-Tibet Highway requests drivers to slow down as they approach a crossing-place for wild animals. [File photo from Xinhua]

"Different animals have different requirements for coping with the system of fences and passages. So the height of fences and the types of crossings must be appropriate to local circumstances," Dai stressed, adding, "traffic signs must be set up on the roads to request that drivers slow down as they approach such crossings."

Painter Chen Jiqun pointed out that road ecology can never be neglected. "To provide roads that conform with the needs of ecological safety should be the goal of all road builders. Drivers should improve their individual driving behavior and try their best not to harm wild animals".

(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong, April 2, 2009)