Why did the animals cross the road?
Because they can thanks to the highway wildlife crossings in the park!
A wildlife crossing is a structure built as an underpass or an overpass at various locations along the Trans-Canada Highway. To date there are 22 underpasses and 2 overpasses with an additional 8 crossings being created over the next 4 years!
The animals didn't quite know how to deal with these structures and didn't really trust them until one day a tiny vole made the first daring dash across to the other side. Soon enough researchers found Elk prints in the trackpad (sand) placed at each entrance of the crossings, followed by the bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars, moose, deer, big horned sheep... even the wolverines and lynx have crossed over to the other side.
The researchers have found that grizzly bears, wolves, elk, moose and deer prefer the high, wide and short in length overpasses while the black bears and cougars prefer more constricted crossings.
Stop by the information centres in Banff and Lake Louise to check out some of the motion detection videos of the animals using the crossings. Or visit the Parks website www.pc.gc.ca/transcanada for more information.
A cougar using one of the crossings
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