{"id":857840,"date":"2026-06-10T16:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/857840\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T16:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:27:18","slug":"californias-wildlife-bridge-isnt-finished-yet-but-one-species-is-already-using-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/857840\/","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s Wildlife Bridge Isn\u2019t Finished Yet, But One Species Is Already Using It"},"content":{"rendered":"

A California wildlife<\/a> bridge is already helping make animals’ lives safer and easier\u2014and it’s not technically open yet.<\/p>\n

On June 1, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) announced that the Golden State’s animal residents had begun to use the nearly complete bridge, which crosses US-101 in Siskiyou County, near the California-Oregon border. Researchers from the UC Davis Road Ecology Center and Caltrans noticed the animals using the wildlife bridge thanks to a set of over 100 cameras, which have been placed along the bridge’s trail since construction began last July.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Three mule deer walking across an unfinished wildlife bridgeImage via Katherine E Kerlin&sol;UC Davis Road Ecology Center<\/p>\n

(Image via Katherine E Kerlin&sol;UC Davis Road Ecology Center)<\/p>\n

A trio of mule deer were the first to use, and completely cross, the bridge on May 24. At least two of the wild deer are male, and they may not be the only wild animals to have used the bridge before its completion.<\/p>\n

“While the contractor is still completing final touches,” Caltrans District 2 explained<\/a> in a Facebook post, “it\u2019s incredible to see wildlife already embracing the new structure, even with workers still in the area. In addition to deer, a bobcat and other wildlife have also been spotted using it.”<\/p>\n

Related: Woman Rescues Baby Deer Stuck in a Sewer Grate and Now It Won’t Stop Following Her<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The animals’ presence suggests a major win for Caltrans, which has spent over $20m on the project. If these cute deer<\/a> are willing to use the wildlife bridge only 15 hours after construction crews left the area, it only makes sense that more will follow.<\/p>\n

What Do Wildlife Bridges Do?<\/p>\n

Caltrans chose this particular spot on Highway 101 to construct a wildlife bridge because of the high number of wildlife fatalities in the area. According to the UC Davis Road Ecology Center, 50 deer and 16 elk fatalities were recorded here<\/a> between 2015 and 2020.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc36<\/a>SIGN UP to get \u201cpawsitivity\u201d delivered right to your inbox with inspiring & entertaining stories about our furry & feathered friends<\/strong><\/a>\ud83d\udc3e\ud83d\udc3e<\/a><\/p>\n

Across California, roughly 10%<\/a> of the mule deer population is killed by motor vehicles every year. This has inspired other projects, like the much larger Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing currently being constructed in Southern California, though the Northern California bridge is the first fully proposed, funded, and constructed by Caltrans.<\/p>\n

With simple but important changes to our infrastructure, we can make what’s left of the natural world as friendly to wild animals<\/a> as possible. After all, we’re building our homes in their homes, so it’s truly the least we can do!<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by PetHelpful<\/a> on Jun 10, 2026, where it first appeared in the Pet News<\/a> section. Add PetHelpful as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A California wildlife bridge is already helping make animals’ lives safer and easier\u2014and it’s not technically open yet.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":857841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[276,108699,164102,159,350075,67,132,68,350074,9536,837],"class_list":["post-857840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-california","tag-caltrans","tag-mule-deer","tag-science","tag-uc-davis-road-ecology-center","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wallis-annenberg-wildlife-crossing","tag-wild-animals","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116726756014394351","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}