Utah Wildlife Bridge
The Utah wildlife bridge was built over Interstate 80 in Utah’s Parleys Canyon. These wildlife bridges have been constructed since the 1970s to help protect wildlife. The Parleys Canyon bridge was completed in 2018 and is currently the only wildlife bridge in Utah. This bridge has a few miles of fence that help funnel wildlife to the bridge to cross safely.
Over the past few years, the Division of Wildlife Resources has put trail cameras up on the bridge to track the use of this bridge and see its effectiveness. These wildlife bridge cameras have caught all sorts of different animals using this bridge. A few of the animals using this bridge are the Shiras moose, black bears, mule deer, and bobcats. These animals were able to effectively redirect these awesome animals towards the bridge. This probably saved the lives of the animals using the bridge as well as the lives of the drivers using the Parleys canyon road. The speed limit on this road is 65 MPH. That means any car would be completely demolished if it hit a black bear, mule deer, elk, or moose on this road before the bridge was made. If you would like to see a list of animals using the wildlife bridge click below.
Bridge Construction
The purpose of these bridges is to protect the wildlife that would normally cross the roads and get hit by cars. On some roads, especially in Utah, it is not uncommon to see large amounts of roadkill on the road. In areas where these bridges are the number of animals that are killed by cars has dropped significantly. This helps keep people and animals safe from high speed collisions on the roads.
As a reminder people are not allowed on or near the wildlife bridge. If lots of people visit the wildlife bridges, it will deter animals from using these bridges. If you try to visit the wildlife life bridge you will see these signs around the bridge.
Utah Wildlife
This bridge helps keep Utah’s widlife safe. If you would like to see more of Utah’s awesome wildlife, check out our gallery below!
Trail Cameras
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources was able to get these awesome videos by using trail cameras on the wildlife bridge. If you would like to see some of the wildlife near you, we recommend using trail cameras to reduce the pressure on wildlife that comes from human interaction. If you need recommendations on which trail camera ( or game cameras) to use, check out our trail camera reviews page below! Also if you need some tips on how to set up your cameras click the trail camera tips button.
