Guidelines for Evaluating Use of Wildlife Crossing Structures

Wildlife crossing structures help animals cross safely under or over roads or other linear infrastructure and hence play an important role in the conservation of biodiversity. Measuring the rate of use by wildlife is an important first step in almost every evaluation of wildlife crossing structures. Unfortunately, the majority of studies of the use of crossing structures by wildlife lack a proper study design which limits the quality or reliability of the findings. The design and methods of each study to evaluate the use of crossing structures must be tailor-made because of differences among structures in their design, goals, target species, landscape and road conditions.