Biology

Frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians around the world face mounting threats from a devastating fungus, climate change, habitat loss -- and road mortality. Among these, roads pose a uniquely immediate danger by cutting through critical migration corridors, allowing vehicles to crush millions of animals each year.

Now, a new, first-of-its-kind study offers powerful evidence that a simple intervention -- wildlife underpass tunnels -- can dramatically reduce these amphibian deaths and help preserve ecosystems.

In research spanning more than a decade, scientists and citizens from the University of Vermont, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and the local community assessed the effectiveness of two wildlife underpasses installed under a road in Monkton, Vermont. The results were striking: an 80.2% reduction in amphibian deaths.