Urban Myths and Wild Animals Collide

Tweety posted this picture on her blog yesterday. I did a double take. Is that real? 1) Elk crossing en masse like that? In Canada! And I didn't know about this? She found an article that said Canada had spent over a million dollars on building an "eco-pass" for wildlifebecause of all the car accidents and harm to animals. 2) I've been right there in that pic a million times. 3) I went to a lecture a couple years ago on wolves at the Banff Public Library about the National Park and one of the items discussed was wolves using highways and railroads as trails. You see, wolves, just like us, don't like snow packed in between their toes. 4) So they like to walk on the highway. Unfortunately they get hit by cars. But why don't I know about Canada building this million dollar passway...how wonderful of us! 5) Ah no...I went to the University of Google and found that it is a railroad bridge the animals have co-opted.
From Scopes:"BUSTED! Not sure if the photo was edited or not, but the bridge is definately not for elk or other animals. If photo is edited, they did a great job.Checked the area on Google Earth, and found the intersection in the photo. The bridge that the elk are on, is a railroad bridge.On Google Earth go to 51 12'20.03" N 115 32'12.38" W. (copy and paste these coordinates)Also there IS an animal brigde a few miles from intersection at 51 09'39.94" N 115 42'51.56" W."
6) Here is an artists rendition of a proposal for "eco=pass" in Colorado, Interstate 70.
7) Yep, that's me a couple years ago in Banff. I love how I have a perfect manicure and lipstick. I crack myself up: I don't remember being that organized. 8) This is another random thing that a lot of people don't know about me, for such a girlie girl I'm a secret jock. My girlfriend and I stayed with my sister for a couple of days in Calgary before we took off for two weeks to Banff to ski. One night my sister and brother-in-law were like..."can you actually ski downhill?" Even my own sister doesn't think of me as active. 9) I first skiied in Smithers, B.C. a century ago it seems. We didn't wear high tech ski wear like you see in this pic. We wore jeans and hoodies. No chair lift. 8,000 feet on a T-bar. A t-bar is alittle piece of like plastic shaped like a t you put between your legs under your butt on a string. Yes, and you let some carny or machine drag you up a cliff. 8,000 feet of cliff. I must have been mad. Or else a teenager! Same daredevil difference.


9) I just liked this video. It doesn't have anything to do with this post except location. It made me really want to go to Banff. I love Banff...whereas, I hate Whistler. Whistler looks like The Truman Show all the buildings are cookie cutter design, beige and made in the last twenty years. 10) Banff still has a couple of the very bars I used to drink in when I was a kid and beautiful stone structures encouraged for new buildings too. I thought this video might be of interest to visitors here who have never been to Banff. You can tell that the person who made this video really was enjoying the place and took special care in constructing this piece.

11) What do false claims about Canada building a bridge for animals tell us about ourselves?

12) Maybe: that Canada is frivilous and touchy feely with it's budgets? Canada can afford to take care of it's wildlife...so should other countries? 13) That if we build over passes for animals...it justifies building highways and expansion for ourselves: see animals and people both benefit from suburban sprawl?

What other messages does this urban myth convey?

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