ROAD ECOLOGY—PELICANS: What happens when north 
winter winds, a bridge and the tide don’t play well 
together? Pelicans get hurt: [04 “into the roadway.”] Details 
ahead on Passport to Texas.

This is Passport to Texas

You’re driving the posted 75 MPH speed limit on SH 48 in 
south Texas. It’s winter; dusk. You’re crossing the bridge. 
Suddenly, you see a pelican on the road; you barely miss it. 
What happened?

31—In winter, what’s been happening at the Gamin Bridge—at SH 48 
in Bahia Grande—is strong northerly winds come through at dusk, 
when pelicans are coming from the coast; they want to go roost on the 
Bahia Grande, [but] the way the bridge as well as the concrete barriers 
is engineered, it’s creating these wind vortexes that—if they don’t get 
high enough loft—makes the birds lose loft, and they crash into the 
roadway. 

Laura Zebehazy, program leader for Wildlife Habitat 
Assessment, studies the impacts of roadways on wildlife, 
known as road ecology. Researchers believe the structure 
of the SH 48 Bridge, along with the fluctuating tide, may 
impact the wind, and the pelicans’ fate.

14—It is contributing, but now there needs to be further research that 
looks at what can we do to the bridge and those concrete barriers 
that’s the most effective to alleviate the number of pelicans that are 
being impacted. 

We’ll learn more about that tomorrow.

The Wildlife restoration Program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.









Total sound bite time:		0:45.0
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I’m actually the program leader for Wildlife Habitat Assessment and an understanding of 
road ecology is just one facet of my job. TPWD does not have an official road ecology 
program (I wish they did though!).
See my comment in road_ecology_1.doc