Eric Abelson & Daniel Blumstein quoted in Lab Manager: Why Some Animals Fear Using Wildlife Crossings

“It’s only through studies like this that focus on how animals perceive and react to the stimuli in their environment—which can either attract them or repel them—that we’ll gain the necessary insights to develop effective wildlife crossings,” said co-author Daniel Blumstein, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. “Importantly, different species are likely to respond differently, and other external contextual cues might also influence how a given species responds.”

Corresponding author Eric Abelson, who worked with Blumstein on the study as a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA’s La Kretz Center for Conservation Science, noted that while prior research has demonstrated that the passage of many vehicles affects animals, the current study is the first to observe animals’ roadside behavior in real time, both before and after vehicles passed.