Where are turtle tunnels located?

There are turtle tunnels in Japan to protect wandering turtles from being run over by trains. Seeing turtles getting trapped while crossing rail tracks to get to a pond nearby, Japan railway engineers installed shallow tunnels beneath the tracks at stations in Nara Prefecture in 2015.

Every year, these slow-moving reptiles get stuck on the tracks, causing delays in the arrival schedule. What’s more, as you can see in the photos provided by the railway company, the animals can cause train accidents by getting wedged between the lines at junctions. When the switches flip, they fail to close completely due to the turtles’ shells.

It’s a common problem too, as the animals that were unable to climb over the metal rails follow along the tracks until they get stuck or killed by the trains. The West Japan Railway fixed this problem by installing escape ditches for the turtles at set intervals along the railroad.

Since installing the system in April, the company says it’s witnessed ten turtles in the ditches. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but ten animals saved and ten potential accidents avoided is great.

Picture Credit : Google

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