Jasper National Park is a hot spot for roadkill. Between 2011 and 2021, Parks Canada reported that 1007 animals died on the highway.
That’s four times the number that were killed over the same period in Banff National Park, where there are many more kilometres of asphalt.
“It’s much higher than we would like to see,” David Argument, a resource conservation officer with Jasper National Park, told CBC.
The problem, said Argument, is that, unlike Banff, the highway through Jasper National Park is not twinned and fenced. It also lacks wildlife crossing infrastructure.
Between Banff Park’s east gate and the BC-Alberta border just west of Lake Louise, there are six major wildlife overpasses and 38 underpasses along an 82-kilometre-long stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway.
It has the highest concentration of highway wildlife crossing structures in the world, and it is important for wildlife and human safety.
Crossings Save Lives
Parks Canada has been monitoring Banff National Park’s fencing and wildlife crossings since 1996. Research using remote cameras and hair snag traps has shown that more human-shy animals like grizzlies and wolves can take up to five years to get accustomed to wildlife crossings, while other animals like deer are quick to use them.
More than 25 years of monitoring has shown an 80 percent drop in vehicle-animal collisions. In contrast, deer and elk collisions have dropped by a whopping 96 percent.
Contrary to speculation, a study of wildlife crossings in Quebec conducted by the University of Alberta biologists concluded that predators like wolves don’t take advantage of these wildlife funnelling structures for an easy meal.
Roadkills Province-Wide on the Rise
Elsewhere in Alberta, it’s a different story. Alberta Wildlife Watch says vehicle drivers hit and killed more than 7,000 animals in 2023, marking a 73 percent increase from 2019.
According to data collected by Alberta Wildlife Watch, deer are the most common roadkill victims. More than 4,250 were reported struck and killed in each of the last three years. The other common roadkill victims are porcupines, skunks, moose, rabbits, coyotes, raccoons, pet dogs, and cats.
Todd Zimmerling, the president and chief executive of the Alberta Conservation Association, told CBC that with more than 100,000 mule and white-tailed deer in the province, roadkill is more of a highway safety issue than a deer conservation challenge.
“It is much more of a ‘What data can we collect to help us reduce the impact on human life and damage to vehicles’ sort of thing because that is a really important thing and can have obviously tragic impacts,” Zimmerling said, adding that the risk rises when vehicles hit large animals, like moose.
Alberta Wildlife Watch data shows that cars have killed between 400 and 500 moose annually in recent years.
Banff National Park’s first two wildlife crossings were built in 1996 for $1.5 million each. They now cost over $4 million each.
The investment required to build similar crossings on all Alberta highways cutting through wildlife habitat would likely be cost-prohibitive. So, when you see highway signs warning about wildlife, the best defence is to slow down and drive with special care.
It could distinguish between a nasty accident and a great road trip.
