Posted on 09/20/2005 12:34:48 PM PDT by kanecorp
PRAGUE (AFP) - A Czech town has built a 10,000-euro (12,000 dollar) bridge to protect a handful of squirrels from a busy road, without knowing if they will use it.
The seven-metre (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 myself witnessed two dead squirrels on the road in the space of two months 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.
"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.
Most of the 290,000 koruna (9,920 euro) 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.
Only two dead in 2 months? Can't ask for any less than that. I hope saving that 1 squirrel a month is worth the money.
Can you imagine? It's like having peta in charge.
Couldn't they donate the money for Katrina relief????
/sarc
Well, duh. Put a Squirrel Crossing Only sign up, you dufus.
/sarcasm
The tunnel cost $3,000,000.
This is a joke, right?
Couldn't they accomplish the same thing -- assuming it needed to be accomplished -- just by stringing a phone wire across two polls on either side of the road?
Phew! For a second there, I thought this might have been one of those projects funded by the recent Transportation Bill!
So who are the squirrels in this story? The rodents or the primates?
So it cost almost no tax money, so who cares?
Protected and a bridge? Wonder if they are going to give them free medical check ups and Czech the squirrels nuts?
They're 'nuts'.
No, if that were the case, then it would have cost $290 million instead of $10,000 -- you'd have a twelve lane suspension bridge connecting a single squirrel nest to a bird feeder.
They are all over! I thought we were the only ones who had such nutcases.
LOL!
The 10K Euro bridge is nothing. The trail of sunflower seeds they'll have to use to get the squirrels to use it will cost them five times that the first year. ;)
Czech this out.
So they have Democrats over there too, huh?
10,000 euro's for what basically is an aircraft cable strung between two trees... damn... some CONtractor is partying heartily tonight.
Squirrels are a protected species in the Czech Republic.
I'm sure we could donate a few.
$4,000 per squirrel. There had to be a US Senator involved in this cost/benefit analysis.
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