New signposts protect barn owls from highway traffic

An experimental project has rolled out in an attempt to persevere barn owls in the Netherlands. Younger, inexperienced owls are often killed by oncoming traffic while hunting mice on Dutch highways. For three kilometers on the A7, Beesterzwaag highway, rolling bars have been installed on signposts. The bars start rolling once the bird lands, causing it to fly away instead of hunting on the highway. The experiment was initiated by the Barn Owl Protection Foundation, in conjunction with the Society for Protection of Birds (VBN). They expect to run the experiment until 2015, and should the experiment prove to diminish the number of owls dying on the highway, this project will be rolled out to other parts of the Netherlands too.