Defenders of Wildlife Blog

It’s that time of year again… Save the Florida Panther Week! And the celebration of Florida’s official state animal is in full swing. Where do the endangered big cats stand today? We caught up with Defenders’ Florida director Laurie Macdonald to find out.

Defenders: 2011 wasn’t a great year for Florida panthers, with a record-tying 24 deaths recorded. Are the numbers looking any better in the new year?

Laurie: The good news is, the panther population throughout the state is holding at 100-160 animals. But while that recovery is a vast improvement from the low numbers seen in the late 1960s (only 20-30 animals in the entire state), we’re not out of the woods yet—the Florida panther remains one of the most endangered cats in the world. Already, five panthers have died in 2012, with three of those caused by collisions with vehicles, reminding us we still have work to do to protect these animals.

Defenders: Accidents while crossing roads continues to be a leading threat to the recovery of these animals–what progress is being made to make Florida roads safer for panthers?

Laurie: The past few months have been exciting times for panther recovery! In December, we were thrilled to see a slow speed nighttime panther zone designated at CR 832/Keri Road, where nine panthers have been killed since 1996. And then in January, a Remote Animal Detection System (RADS) was installed along a deadly stretch of US-41 in the state’s Big Cypress National Preserve. The system is being monitored now to determine whether it is effective in detecting big cats and if it can be used in other parts of the state. These are projects that will help us make roads not only safer for wildlife like panthers, but for people too.

Defenders: Improving passage for panthers wasn’t the only good news for the endangered cats this winter, was it?

Laurie: I’m happy to say it wasn’t! Also in January, Secretary Interior Ken Salazar announced the creation of the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area, an area north of Lake Okeechobee and valuable panther habitat. This was a huge boost for panthers, who will need even more room to roam as the population continues to grow.

Defenders: What advice can we give to Florida residents to help keep panthers on the road to recovery?

Laurie: As panthers go about their lives and raise their kittens, it’s important that we recognize how to prevent conflict situations, for instance, by securing pets and livestock at night rather than making domestic animals easy prey. And by driving carefully and watching out for wildlife, Floridians (and visitors!) can prevent panther injury and death, making the highways safer for all. This can be as simple as following day and nighttime speed limits and staying alert in case panthers or other wildlife— bear, deer, turtles, even birds— are trying to walk, crawl or fly across the road!

Learn more:

Be a part of the celebration! This Saturday, March 17, join Defenders and other Sunshine State residents at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge Open House. The day includes bird walks, buggy rides and tours through panther habitat. For more information, visit www.fws.gov/floridapanther.

Spring Break is around the corner. Make sure you’re ready for the road with these tips on how to drive safely in panther country.

Watch Out for Wildlife Awareness Week may be officially over, but the effort to make roads in America safer for wildlife and people is only ramping up. This year, tens of thousands of Americans contacted their governors to officially proclaim Watch Out for Wildlife Awareness Week in their states—and 25 governors across the country responded to the call!  This response reflects just how many of us have been affected by wildlife-vehicle collisions. In fact, of the nearly 1,200 responders to a recent Facebook poll, 90 percent have either been in an accident involving wildlife or know someone who has.

But while not all wildlife-vehicle collisions can be prevented, there are many things drivers can do to reduce their chances of hitting an animal. Here are some basics:

1. Drive slow and steady, and be alert to wildlife around you.
2. Keep it clean and clear. Keep your windshield and headlights clean. Dim your interior dash lights and keep your dashboard clear of objects that will obstruct your view or cause a glare on the inside of your windshield and reduce visibility.
3. Don’t litter. Even if that apple core IS biodegradable, it is also a tasty treat for a wild animal who will be attracted to the roadside where they are more likely to be hit.
4. Don’t rely on deer whistles.  We always have people suggest using deer whistles and swear by them. Unfortunately, no studies show they work.
5. Speak up! If you drive through a roadkill zone where you frequently see several dead animals, write to your transportation agency and express your concerns. Ask what they are doing to reduce the impacts of roads on wildlife.

Defenders is committed to making our roads safer for wildlife and people. Whether building tunnels for endangered salamanders in Vermont to keeping moose away from cars in Alaska, we will continue to work to make sure wherever the destination, the journey is a safe one.

Learn more:

Read more about Defenders’ Habitats and Highways campaign, and what you can do to help prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions. 

For the past 11.5 years, I’ve been the director of Defenders’ Habitat and Highways program. Friends and family would tell you that I routinely brag about having the coolest job in the world and one of my favorite pastimes is talking to people about it. Sure, roadkill doesn’t make for the best dinner conversation, but it never ceases to amaze me how much people love to talk about it. When I tell people what I do, they always say the same two things:

1. “I always see so many dead (insert wildlife species here) when I’m driving along (insert their local highway here).”
2. “I hate seeing so much roadkill and wish there was something I could do about it.”

But now they can!  Across the country, citizen-based wildlife observation efforts are underway to minimize the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions. One project, I-90 Wildlife Watch, invites motorists to report wildlife sightings along Interstate 90 (I-90) in the Snoqualmie Pass region of Washington. Plans are in the works to widen the highway, which intersects the Cascade Mountains, a critical link in the north-south movement of wildlife. To ensure animals will still be able to move through the area, wildlife crossings will be built under and over the new, wider highway. And what better way to find out where to put those crossings than to ask the people who drive the road every day?

So I-90 Wildlife Watch asks motorists to report their wildlife sightings while traveling I-90 through Snoqualmie Pass. Participants can go to a website, click on “Report a Wildlife Sighting” and answer a few brief questions about what they saw and where. The information gathered from the citizen reports will help determine locations for more than a dozen wildlife crossings along the 15-mile stretch of highway.

Citizen Byron Langley has been submitting wildlife reports since May and now keeps a notepad with him to note relevant details when he can. “I saw this option to volunteer as an easy thing to do to help contribute to a better environment for traffic and animals,” Langley said. “It’s rewarding and fun and helps support the animals.”

Here are just a few more examples of citizens playing a key role in keeping our roads safe for people and wildlife:

California Roadkill Observation System
Colorado I-70 Wildlife Watch
Idaho Fish and Wildlife Information System
Maine’s Wildlife Road Watch
Linking Landscapes for Massachusetts Wildlife
Alberta, Canada’s Road Watch in Crowsnest Pass

Tell us your story:

Do you see wildlife on your daily commute?  What animals do you see and where?  Send your stories (and photos!) to Highways@defenders.org. Your story might be featured in Friday’s blog post!

WOW Week update:

This week, even more governors have officially proclaimed “Watch Out for Wildlife Awareness Week,” taking the number up to 25! Has your governor joined the effort to make our roads safer? Find out here. 

Although deer continue to be the number one victim of wildlife-vehicle collisions, accidents on the road impact a wide range of animals. In a 2007 study on wildlife-vehicle collisions, the Western Transportation Institute compiled a list of 21 federally listed threatened and endangered species in the United States for which direct road mortality is among the major threats to the survival. That list not only included mammals like the San Joaquin kit fox, Canada lynx and Florida panther, but even reptiles like the American crocodile and birds like the Florida scrub jay. Watch our video to see the full range of listed species.

Sadly, those are only the animals that are affected by direct collisions with vehicles. If the study had included other impacts of roads and associated development, such as habitat loss and fragmentation, that list would have been much, much longer.

Florida panther: Poster child for the road to extinction?

With only an estimated 100 to 160 remaining in the wild, Florida panthers are one of the most endangered mammals in the world. Meant to range over large areas in search of food and mates, these cats are forced to crisscross the Sunshine State’s dangerous highways all too often. As a result, collisions with vehicles take a terrible toll on panthers—16 were killed on Florida roads in 2010, and a record-breaking 17 in 2009.

Fortunately, progress is being made to protect these big cats. Next week, builders will break ground on a Remote Animal Detection System (RADS) in Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve. The preserve is a stronghold for the Florida panther, with the Turner River area specifically providing prime panther habitat. But the roads that cross the preserve also make it a very dangerous place for the endangered cats, especially breeding females and their kittens. By detecting large animals like panthers on the Turner River area of US 41 and alerting drivers of their presence, the system is intended to cut down on the amount of cats killed on the road.

Defenders is hopeful that the RADS project will raise awareness about the need to drive carefully and watch out for wildlife in Big Cypress National Preserve. We will continue to work for long-term solutions to make this deadly stretch of road safer for wildlife and people, from increased awareness and law enforcement in the panther zone to exploring the possibility of safe passage under and over busy roads.

If you’ve ever been in a wildlife-vehicle collision, you know they not only put a dent in your fender, they can put a big dent in your wallet. A recent study calculated the average total costs associated with collisions with three species: $6,617 per collision for deer, $17,483 for elk and $30,760 for moose. OUCH! The insurance industry estimates that Americans spend over $1 billion dollars per year in property damage due to wildlife-vehicle collisions.

But did you know you pay for accidents with wildlife, even if you’ve never been in one? Wildlife-vehicle collisions consume resources from law enforcement, emergency services, road maintenance crews and wildlife management personnel – so we ALL pay for them (even if you don’t own a car!). The best estimate of the total annual costs to society associated with wildlife-vehicle collisions is nearly $8.4 billion.

With our country’s current recession, we can’t afford to throw money away. We also need to create jobs. So I’m proposing a Recession Roadkill Stimulus program. It’s a two pronged plan to save money, save lives and save wildlife.

First, what if we could keep that $8.4 billion per year in American pockets? Even one unfortunate run-in with a deer not only costs working Americans thousands in repairs and medical costs, but could leave them without their only means of transportation to their job. By reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions, we decrease the financial burden on the hundreds of thousands of families every year.

Second, in order to keep wildlife and cars from crossing paths, we need to build wildlife crossings that allow animals to pass safely under or over roads. They can move around to find food, mates and shelter without having to step onto the pavement. And what does the planning, designing, building and installing these structures mean? Jobs!

In his State of the Union address, President Obama said to rebuild America, we need to put “more Americans to work repairing crumbling roads and bridges.” His 2009 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided $26.6 billion for transportation projects. What if we had spent just 2 percent of that on reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions? That’s $532 million – more than $10 million per state. According to a recent study, every $10 million committed to ARRA highway projects produced 24,000 job hours. Not too shabby!

Stay tuned:

Congress is expected to work on a new highway bill over the next few months. Defenders and our partners will be asking for provisions to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and we will need them to hear your voices loud and clear. Together, we can put a dent in wildlife-vehicle collisions.

Fall is upon us! Leaves are changing, kids are back in school. And wildlife is on the move. While we’re thinking about Halloween costumes, animals are working on their winter coats. While we’re planning Thanksgiving dinner, they’re fattening up for winter. While we’re winterizing our homes, they’re migrating to wintering areas. It’s a busy time for many wildlife species—and that means more wildlife-vehicle collisions.

Each year in the United States, there are up to two million wildlife-vehicle collisions. That number is on the rise—accidents involving wildlife now represent one out of every 20 reported motor vehicle collisions, and they occur every 26 seconds. Wildlife-vehicle collisions claim the lives of 200 Americans every year and seriously injure 29,000 more. And as increasing development leaves wildlife with less and less habitat, we can only expect the number and severity of wildlife-vehicle collisions to continue to increase.

Although wildlife-vehicle collisions impact a wide variety of animals, deer continue to be the victim of most accidents. Deer are crepuscular, meaning that they are active at dawn and dusk, just when we are driving to work or picking the kids up from band practice. (So it’s not surprising that most accidents involving deer happen between 5 and 8 a.m. and 5 to 10 p.m.) Because of all the mating, moving and migrating, the majority of deer-vehicle collisions happen from October to December. That’s why Defenders’ Watch Out for Wildlife Awareness Week falls each year in September—to remind drivers to slow down behind the wheel, be alert and watch out for wildlife before the roads start getting busy.

Fortunately, we aren’t the only ones taking action! To date, 21 governors have officially declared Watch Out for Wildlife Awareness week in their states. Wildlife crossings – special structures that allow animals to safely cross under or over a road – have been built in several states and are in the works in many more. And thanks in part to our members in Colorado, the state legislature passed a bill to designate wildlife crossing zones on highways where speed limits are reduced and speeding fines are doubled, similar to construction zones. Progress!

Learn more:

Stay tuned to our blog all week for more Watch Out for Wildlife posts. We’ll be talking more about the growing wildlife-vehicle collision epidemic, the progress we’re making through our Habitat and Highways program and more about what you can do to make our highways safer for wildlife and the people who defend them.

Tell us your story:

Have you been involved in a wildlife-vehicle collision? Tell us about it! Send your stories (and photos!) to highways@defenders.org. Your story might be featured in Friday’s blog post!