奇速英语

应用程序辅助人们收集“被路杀”野生动物

The American state of Wyoming has created a tool to help citizens collect animals killed in road accidents. The tool permits people to legally claim the animals, known as roadkill, for food. The program also aims to collect data to help officials decide on measures to improve road safety. State wildlife and highway officials added the system to a state-operated app(应用程序) that provides information on road conditions and traffic.

Users can register sightings of roadkill accidents and seek permission to remove the animals within the state’s rules and guidelines. Wyoming defines “road killed wildlife” as any deer, antelope, elk, moose, wild bison or wild turkey that was killed in an accidental vehicle crash. State rules require the full animal remains to be collected. For safety reasons, roadkill may not be picked up after dark, along interstate(洲际的) highways or in areas where road repairs are happening.

The app provides state officials with data on the number of roadkill accidents and where the crashes are happening. This helps wildlife and transportation officials decide where to put up warning signs for animal crossings.

Officials estimate at least 6,000 animals are killed on state roads in Wyoming each year. “That’s quite a lot,” said Sara DiRienzo. She is a spokesperson for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. She added, “And we know that the majority of those are mule deer.”

Mule deer live in the western half of North America and are generally bigger than the whitetail deer found across the whole continent. Wyoming is home to about 400,000 mule deer. The animals are widely hunted across the state. But dry climate and disappearing living environments have led to a nearly 30 percent reduction in the state’s mule deer population over the past 30 years. “Mule deer already are struggling because of a number of factors. Roadkill collisions don’t help that,” DiRienzo said.