BOULDER CITY, Nev. (AP) — Four underpasses were built to protect wildlife from traffic and traffic from wildlife on a new stretch of Interstate 11 near Boulder City.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports wildlife officials in Nevada and Arizona plan to use tracking collars and remote cameras to determine whether animals are actually using the several million dollars' worth of wildlife crossings built as part of the first addition to the nation's interstate highway system since 1992.
The underpasses were inspired by three overpasses just up the highway in Arizona that effectively eliminated collisions between cars and desert bighorn sheep on U.S. Highway 93.
Officials say about a dozen bighorns a year were being hit on the highway before the improvements were made. That number dropped to five the first year after the wildlife crossings went in.