Ocelot_RoadCrossings_Wilcox_Shari_AustinTX_13April2022_Reel4099.mp3

Shari Wilcox [00:00:00] Now, the roads issue is huge. The leading known cause of ocelot mortality, or ocelot death, in the United States is being hit by a car. We had a terrible year in 2015. We had seven ocelots killed on roads in South Texas.

Shari Wilcox [00:00:20] And so this fragmentation of habitat means cats are attempting to move around a landscape that is increasingly perilous for them, and they are crossing roads, and unfortunately, sometimes meeting their fate on those roads as they're moving, particularly at night. This is a nocturnal species, a small animal moving quickly across the landscape under cover of darkness. And unfortunately, drivers just don't even see them, and they end up hit by cars.

Shari Wilcox [00:00:52] And so that really is the, the leading concern - is loss of habitat, fragmentation of habitat and increasing road density and traffic. ...

Shari Wilcox [00:01:04] Planning for corridors, for wildlife corridors, and building road crossings for ocelots are really the opportunities that we have to embrace. Texas Department of Transportation worked with Fish and Wildlife to build 12 or 13 (depends how you count them) wildlife crossings specifically designed for ocelots around Laguna Atascosa.

Shari Wilcox [00:01:29] And these crossings have been a huge success. They enjoy incredible public support, and they also are actually working. The cats are using the underpasses. We have documentation from cameras of different male ocelots wandering on and off the Refuge, utilizing the crossings. And so that also is a real promise for the future in order to assure these cats some level of safe passage as we work to reconnect corridors for them. ...

Shari Wilcox [00:02:03] Roads are a major concern in wildlife conservation, not just for ocelots, but so many species. We actually lose 12 percent of all wild animals in North America to death on roads every year.

Shari Wilcox [00:02:18] And this is an issue of animal safety, but it's also an issue of human safety and property damage. We experience, as a society, $8 billion a year and property damage and losses due to strikes with wildlife, not just endangered wildlife, but the more common animals, notably deer. And so finding support for wildlife crossings is as much a human issue as it is a wildlife issue.

Shari Wilcox [00:02:48] My colleagues who work in Washington, D.C., worked very hard to have a $350 million provision put into the transportation bill at the federal level to support the construction of wildlife crossings. This was really important because while wildlife crossings enjoy public support, there wasn't a lot of funding for them.

Shari Wilcox [00:03:12] States were struggling to find the money to build them. They are not always cheap to build. Some are underpasses, go under roads. Others are overpasses that go over roads. And there's a lot of work that has to go into siting these so animals will use them. A lot of fencing is used to funnel animals across roads at safe places, and so there's a lot of planning and it's not cheap.

Shari Wilcox [00:03:38] And so fortunately, with the inclusion of these funds in that infrastructure bill, we have a source of funding that states can draw from to build these underpasses, like the ocelot crossings that we have in South Texas.