Article By: Zachy Hennessey, Israel 21C
Date Published: February 10, 2025
Safe Wildlife Crossings is working to prevent animal road deaths by using a combination of tech and community awareness.
After discovering the scope of the problem, she cofounded Safe Wildlife Crossings, an organization working to protect animals from deadly traffic collisions.
From cats to dogs to mongooses to hyenas, thousands of animals are killed by cars on Israel’s roads every year, and Safe Wildlife Crossings aims to raise public awareness and encourage government action to prevent roadkill.
Last summer, Sigal left her job to focus on the initiative full time as chair of the board.
“It really touched me, especially the gap between what could be done here in Israel and reality,” says Sigal. “There are [potential] solutions, but we are not implementing them here because they’re not the priority of the government.”
The organization has developed several innovative approaches to tackle the crisis.
One tactic is the development and launch of a WhatsApp chatbot for reporting wildlife collisions, which has helped to create a more accurate picture of the problem’s scope.
While official statistics from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority record about 2,000 animal deaths on roads annually, Sigal explains that, based on the flood of reports that the bot has received, the actual number of incidents could be up to 10 times higher.
She notes one telling example wherein a single reporter documented more wildlife collisions in two months along one road section than the official database had recorded in four years.
Safe Wildlife Crossings Consultant Dr. Dror Denneboom is a Technion alumnus. One of the organization’s board members is Technion Assistant Professor Daniel Metcalfe.
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