Otters see the red light for danger

After our initial trials IOSF has installed wildlife-warning reflectors on all the identified danger areas for otters on the Isle of Skye.  This has taken some time to complete as we have had to get permission from the Scottish Executive, Highland Council and obtain licences from Scottish Natural Heritage to do some of the work near otter holts.

For those who are not familiar with the way these work, reflectors are installed on both sides of the road so that the headlights of an approaching vehicle strike the reflector.  Unnoticeable to the driver the light is reflected into the adjoining terrain and an optical warning fence is produced.  Any approaching wildlife is alerted and stops or returns to safety of the countryside.  

IOSF has carried out a test case on Skye and brought down otter road mortalities on the test section by 75% over a two-year period.  While this is still only an experiment at present IOSF wants to see how effective it is over a longer period and greater area on Skye, so that if we can bring down road mortalities on this island we can use the technology in other parts of the UK. 

We are grateful to the Born Free Foundation who funded the work, Highland Council who installed the reflectors on the truck roads and to Jonathan Hodges of WildAid who did all the other work for us.