Wildlife Crossing! New Animal Pathways on Dasyuehshan Forest Road to Capture Precious Wildlife Images

The Dongshih Forest District Office, Forestry Bureau, has set up eight new 20cm wide animal-friendly pathways in the catchment wells along the Dasyuehshan Forest Road to prevent animals from falling down the wells and becoming trapped. These sloping pathways will provide wildlife animals that have fallen down the wells with a means to escape. In addition, infrared automatic cameras have also been set up to capture valuable images of wildlife using the pathways, such as the spiny Taiwan niviventer (Niviventer coninga), Asian red-cheeked squirrel (Dremomys rufigenis), masked palm civet (Paguma larvata), Siberian weasel (Mustela sibirica), and Taiwan serow (Capricornis swinhoei). These endeavors have become a successful story in the implementation of wildlife-friendly measures.
The Dasyuehshan Forest Road was opened in the early days for the transportation of timber, and the ditches and catchment wells set up in the past did not take into account the needs of animals, occasionally causing them to fall in. According to the Dongshih Forest District Office, water catchment wells have been set up along the road’s drainage system to collect runoff for the purpose of water collection and energy dissipation. However, wild animals, including small and medium-sized mammals, often fall in and are unable to escape. In order to improve these non-animal-friendly facilities, the Dongshih Forest District Office set up eight animal escape pathways during the implementation of the road surface improvement project in Dasyuehshan last year, paying particular attention to the catchment wells with large height differences along the Forest Road. In addition, infrared automatic cameras have also been set up for observation to gain an understanding of the wildlife species using the animal-friendly facilities and to observe animal behavior. The aim is to continue improving the performance of the escape pathways and customize them to be more suitable for local wildlife use.
The Dongshih Forest District Office explained that the infrared cameras not only caught sightings of small mammals such as the spiny Taiwan niviventer, Asian red-cheeked squirrel, masked palm civet, and Siberian weasel, but also found the Taiwan serow using the sloping paths to feed or as a passage. These precious footages are a testament to the effectiveness of the Dongshih Forest District Office’s efforts to create an animal-friendly corridor. For hiking enthusiasts, next time you visit the Dasyuehshan Forest Road, you might be able to see for yourself the ingenious design of these animal-friendly measures in inconspicuous places.
Lastly, the Dongshih Forest District Office calls on the public to pay attention to the traffic on the road at all times. If small animals are stopping on or crossing the road, please slow down in a timely manner and give priority to the animals to cross first. In addition, visitors can visit the Taiwan Forest Recreation website for travel-related information before departure. We wish you a wonderful trip to Dasyuehshan!