DENMARK: Pontoons for use by otters have been installed under a railway bridge which carries the line to Ribe over the River Tved.
Infrastructure manager Banedanmark said that while the protected mammals are good swimmers, they dislike swimming under bridges and instead take the more dangerous route on dry land across the track.
However, they are happy to walk under a bridge on a solid surface, so a 10 m long pontoon bridge has been installed so that they can cross the railway without leaving the course of the river.
‘We can now give the otters a safer way past the train traffic’, said Banedanmark’s biodiversity project manager Sigrid Kistrup Ilsøe. ‘We are very happy about that. We have to look after the animals that live in the areas where the railway is located.’
