Wildlife Bridges That Will Restore Your Faith In The World

The number one cause of extinction and animal loss of life is man’s encroaching on animal habitats, and one of the biggest offenders is roads. Animals in the wild roam and migrate, so in an effort to reduce road kill, some wonderful engineers have started creating bridges especially for animals. And they are amazing.

The Netherlands was one of the first countries to start building ecoducts, or animal bridges.

The bridges, like this one near Banff in Canada, allow animals to safely move between stretches of habitat.

Canadians really love them. This one is in Alberta.

The bridges are designed to blend into the natural environment.

This is another one from the Netherlands.

The Netherlands has over 600 wildlife crossings.

In Germany, they even have aqua-ecoducts. Yes, bridges for fish.

Some animal bridges are pretty bushy, like this one in New Jersey...

...while others are positively bald.

Like this one in Germany.

Soon, the Southern Hemisphere caught on and started building their own.

This animal bridge is in Singapore.

Then other animals began demanding their own species-specific bridges. Like this one for monkeys in Brazil.

And in Australia, where red crabs get their own bridges.

Not all animal crossings are built over roads. This one in Florida was built under one.

In some places, like Montana, they feel the need to tell people it's an animal bridge in case they were confused by the lack of road, or pavement, or anything else one would expect from a human bridge.

In Australia, the kangeroos make it across this bridge in a couple of bounds.

Japan Railways has built wildlife tunnels to let turtles cross the tracks safely.

Although, residents of Rhondda Cynon Taf in South Wales thought their local council took it a little too far when they built a state-of-the-art animal bridge... to help dormice safely cross the road.