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Brad Shaffer in The Los Angeles Times: This architect is trying to save cougars from becoming roadkill on California freeways

Brad Shaffer, an evolutionary biologist at UCLA, has high hopes the wildlife crossing will reshape not just the landscape for its top predator but the character of Southern California.

“From a biological perspective,” Shaffer said, “large top carnivores like mountain lions have beneficial cascading consequences on everything in the food chain — from mule deer to ground squirrels, lizards and insects.

“Beyond that, building a wildlife crossing to carry them over one of the busiest freeways in the nation sends a powerful message out to the world that Angelenos care about nature’s role in all of urban life,” he said.

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