Why did the chicken cross the road?
We may never know, since she probably never got to the other side.
In the US alone, about a million animals are flattened by passing motorists each day – and
that doesn’t count all the bugs!
Animals are constantly confronted with barriers, some of them completely natural, and others
that we build that are barely barriers at all.
As we build our own infrastructure, we’re also adding to this obstacle course without
meaning to, and these unintentional fences are some of the most effective animal barriers
out there.
Roads are just the beginning.
Take high-tension power lines, for example.
They may look harmless to us, but many other creatures steer clear.
We can’t say why for sure, but these animals’ ultraviolet vision may mean that the UV flashes
discharging from the cables make for a very scary sight.
And even weirder stuff can get in animals’ way.
Many hoofed mammals are hesitant to cross linear features like clear-cut corridors,
pipelines – even rows of rocks or painted lines on the ground – leaving them psychologically
stranded on one side or the other.
While one stranded cow might not be a huge problem, if enough animals become isolated
from food, mates, and protection, entire populations can dwindle and even disappear.
One solution would be to get rid of all these obstacles, but we aren’t likely to give
up roads, power, or pipelines any time soon.
And even when we remove physical barriers, their stopping power can stick around.
The “Iron Curtain” between the Czech Republic and Germany was torn down more than 20 years
ago, but red deer still won’t cross that divide.
Generations of fawns learned to avoid the barbed wire fence, and even with it gone,
the lessons live on.
Luckily, a little ingenuity goes a long way in guiding animals over, under, or around
the obstacles we put in their way.
Just as a footbridge helps us cross dangerous roads, we can build overpasses that help deer,
monkeys, and crabs do the same.
Elephants go underneath , and we’ve even engineered salmon cannons to help fish sail
past dams on their way upriver.
We can bridge mental barriers too, encouraging animals to cross obstacles that could otherwise
psych them out.
In the end, even if we don’t know why the chicken crossed the road, at least we can
help her get there safely.