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Czech town spends $12,000 on squirrel bridge
It's not exactly the Big Dig, but...A Czech town has built a 12,000 dollar bridge to protect a handful of squirrels from a busy road, without knowing if they will use it. The 23-foot high cable bridge attached to two trees spans a road that divides a large park in the town of Sokolov in the west of the country, near the German border. "We think this construction is unique in the world. I think so, too. I myself witnessed two dead squirrels on the road in the space of two months Back in Michigan, I'd see that many per day and I felt we had to do something," Sokolov mayor Karel Jakobec told AFP Thursday. At the moment the park is home to just three squirrels. So, it's about $4000/squirrel. "The idea is that instead of going down trees and crossing the road to get to the other side of the park the squirrels will go up and across. But we don't know yet if it will work," he added. Why did the squirrel cross the road? Most of the cost was met from a grant by Czech brewer Staropramen as one of 10 grants it awarded for ecological projects in the country. The remaining 40,000 koruna was funded by the town council. "We have already arranged for two more pairs of squirrels to be brought from an animal rescue centre and we are hoping that the squirrel population in the park will now grow," added Jakobec. Squirrels are a protected species in the Czech Republic. All right, let's take some of that reconstruction money for Iraq and build some fennec dens. Posted by: Jackal 2005-09-21 |
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