The Weekly Anthropocene, February 22 2023
Dispatches Against Despair, from the Wild, Weird World of Humanity and its Biosphere
Costa Rica
Endangered golden-mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata palliata) are often killed when attempting to cross roads that traverse their forest habitat. They’re arboreal, so they often get electrocuted when they try to climb across power lines, while dogs and cars await on the ground. In 2015, primatologist Inés Rojas of the University of Costa Rica put together a team to build a network of simple, low-cost canopy bridges, made of a mesh cylinder and a rope topline (pictured), over the roads at 20 key howler monkey crossing hotspots in the Playa Hermosa forest of Costa Rica’s Guanacaste province. They were a runaway success, with over 76 crossings recorded in the first few months. The howler monkey population in the Playa Hermosa forest nearly doubled between 2015 and 2021. Costa Rica is now reportedly close to passing a new law that mandates building canopy bridges as part of all new road projects, as well…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Weekly Anthropocene to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.