“To wander in the 21^st century, unfortunately, is to court death.” – Ben Goldfarb, paragraph 2

This powerful statement comes from the article, written in the Atlantic on November 26, 2019, titled “How Roadkill Became an Environmental Disaster” by Ben Goldfarb. The article focuses on a threatened species; Myrmecophaga tridactyla, otherwise known as the giant anteater, and the struggle they face with sharing their natural environment with the behemoth that is the BR-262 highway in southern Brazil. Anteaters are a species endemic to South America, and their range spans across several countries, starting at southern Brazil all the way to Colombia, and even crossing Panama into North America, ending in Honduras and El Salvador. The article discusses the trails and tribulations these large mammals must navigate in their day-to-day lives, with the highway being a large source of fatalities for their already waning population. But the article doesn’t just cover giant anteaters, it describes every species of animal in the region that has perished at the hands of human development. From capybaras, caimans, hawks and even armadillos, no animal is safe from the constant threat of death that has recently situated itself in their environment.

This is a topic I unfortunately have some personal experience in, and most likely many others, as well. Ever since I started learning how to drive in 2018, I have accidentally hit 2 deer, a couple squirrels, and even a chipmunk at one point, and I’ve only been driving for about 7 years. Avoiding these scared and frantic creatures is an impossible task, depending on what position they’re in relative to my car when they try to cross the road. However, I do remember some last-ditch efforts I’ve made to swerve around them and successfully spare their lives. Ben Goldfarb cites some depressing statistics in his article; roads have become the number one “leading direct human cause of vertebrate mortality on land” surpassing hunting by a large margin. According to Goldfarb, “the most cited estimate pegs America’s roadkill toll at 1 million critters a day” (paragraph 9). Not only that, but in Brazil, a citizen-science roadkill app called “Sistema Urubu”, invented by Alex Bager, has estimated that more than 400 million Brazilian animals are struck down by cars annually. This article really made me think about my contribution to the statistics of animal deaths in a more profound and philosophical way. I may have only hit a small handful of different animals, but when everyone has had experiences like I have, that handful turns into an entire population. I can’t think about it too hard though, because, just like Brazilian wildlife veterinarian Mario Alves is quoted saying:

“I’m sad about the situation,” Alves said. “Not about each animal that I see. Or I would be”—he glanced skyward, casting for an English phrase—“under depression.” – Mario Alves, paragraph 7

Along with countries that already have highways, certain countries that don’t have modern roads have started developing them at an incredible rate, and the species in the area aren’t doing well to adapt to these new changes in their habitat. Goldfarb poses the question of the century: “Having profited wildly from a century of infrastructural growth, can the developed world deny other countries the benefits of connectivity?” (paragraph 59). While I agree with Goldfarb pointing this out, I believe the issue is more complicated than that. It’s not that developing countries are having a worse effect on their local ecosystems than developed countries, it’s just that they’re now catching up to the mortality rates that developed countries have had for quite some time. Either way, the introduction of roads and highways creates a pressing issue for the animals that must cross them to get to their homes.

All this saddening information poses a deeper question; how do we stop this? The first thing we must ask ourselves, is how did it get this way? In today’s modern society, cars have become a rite of passage, then a habit, then an obligation. It is nearly physically impossible to avoid using a motorized vehicle in this day and age. Especially when you live in a rural area. Humans need cars to transport them everywhere; from work, to school, to their favorite recreational area, to their friend’s house, and home, just to wake up the next day to do it all over again. In the past, we had trains and boats, before that we had horses, and before that, all we had were our legs. All these advances in the technology of transportation were created to allow people to travel further and explore more territory, decreasing travel time and most importantly, expending less effort. Over time, our towns and cities were shaped by these technological advances, and now we’ve put ourselves in a position where we just can’t live without cars. It’s ingrained in every aspect of our society.

So how do we stop it? Unfortunately, I don’t think we can fully stop animal deaths by motor vehicles. It’s just the unpleasant reality that in order for humans to live a life of comfort and ease, with our transportation taking us farther than any species in the animal kingdom has walked in its life, we choose to use cars. However, this doesn’t mean we must sacrifice our morality. The only thing we can do is mitigate the effects of roads on our ecosystem. Goldfarb explains that there are many ways to reduce the amount of deaths from roads every year, with a combined effort of legislation, monitoring, education, and the installation of wildlife crossings. The biggest issue with roads is that they fragment the natural habitat of many species. Goldfarb said “In a 2018 study, Clara Grilo and others found that habitat fragmentation by roads posed a graver threat than direct mortality” (paragraph 44).  Wildlife crossings help connect their fragmented habitats, lessening the number of interactions an animal has with the road, and giving it a lower chance of coming into contact with a fast-moving car. Another solution is to put up fences and barriers the animals can’t cross. An article titled “Fences best at reducing roadkill”by Dana Kobilinsky at The Wildlife Society, quoted Jochen Jaeger, who said “’While fences are the most effective’, Jaeger said, ‘they ought to include areas where animals can cross’. If you fence the road entirely and have no crossing structures on the road, the animals can’t recolonize empty habitats’” So if we have roads with fences, combined with wildlife crossings, we can vastly reduce animal mortality from cars. Goldfarb also makes the case that monitoring the animals in a certain habitat can help people get a better idea of what struggles said animals must face and can also contribute to educating the population about how dangerous cars can be to them, thus motivating capable people to better protect them. Education and legislation go hand-in-hand, because an educated population is more likely to support legislation to lessen the effects that roads have on the ecosystem. Basically, you have to get the general population to care. Goldfarb states “More than conservation, then, safety—and liability—has motivated road managers to install fences and crossings” (paragraph 51), which I agree with, because one of the key motivators in getting the general population to care, is to highlight how roadkill not only effects the animals that perish, but can also lead to humans perishing as well.

Researching this issue has opened my eyes to the unfortunate truth of our modern society, and even made me think about the human condition, and how we humans seldom care about the issues we create for other organisms. There are only two ways to solve animal mortality rates at the hands of cars: create new technology that improves transportation in a way that doesn’t endanger animals, or settle for the transportation we have now and just try to work within the boundaries of our car centered infrastructure to keep as many animals safe as we can. The more I learn about this subject, the more I come to the realization that modern human society has an almost completely negative effect on our environment. However, there is always a positive side. With new advances in technology, come new issues, and new ways to solve such issues. Human ingenuity will always invent ways to solve the issues we create. Many people don’t care about the issues that face other organisms, but there are just as many who do. The best thing we can do is care.

Works Cited:

1. Goldfarb, Ben. “How Roadkill Became an Environmental Disaster” The Atlantic,  November 26, 2019, { https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/11/roads-brazil-giant-anteaters/602587/ } [Accessed 0ctober 22, 2025]
2. Kobilinsky, Dana. “Fences best at reducing roadkill” The Wildlife Society, May 1, 2017, { https://wildlife.org/fences-best-at-reducing-roadkill/ } [Accessed October 22, 2025]