Photos show deer, rabbit and other animals crossing the new Tobin Land Bridge at Hardberger Park

SAN ANTONIO – Night critters are putting the new Robert L.B. Tobin Land Bridge to use just months after its completion.

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department on Tuesday released images of a Virginia opossum, a cottontail rabbit, a white-tailed deer and a coyote crossing the new path, which was built above Wurzbach Parkway to help animals cross the road.

The land bridge is 165-feet wide at the base and 150-feet wide at the center and includes water bubblers, trees, shrubs and grasses to help animals cross and to attract wildlife.

The release said that more animals are expected to use the bridge as the vegetation develops.

Officials said the Natural Areas Division recently launched a study to track the wildlife’s use of the bridge.

“Wildlife have four main requirements for life: food, water, shelter, and space. And with increasing development, those necessities are becoming more and more fragmented,” Casey Cowan, Park Naturalist for San Antonio Parks and Recreation, said in a release. “Habitat corridors like the Land Bridge, greenways, and greenbelts connect wildlife to suitable habitat, like parks or tracts of undeveloped private land.”

“It is important for us to remember that plants and wildlife provide critical ecosystem services, so we need to continue to protect these corridors and undeveloped habitat.”

Former Mayor Phil Hardberger said the idea of a land bridge was developled when the construction of Wurzbach Parkway meant the park would be split into two areas, potentially causing a safety issue between wildlife and drivers.

Even though barriers were in place, he recently told KSAT, “they’ll get across or start to get across.”

The New York Times reported that traffic accidents involving animals cause about 200 deaths human deaths a year, and more than 26,000 injuries.

The $23 million land bridge on the North Side opened in December, months before the elevated Skywalk opened for visitors.

The elevated walkway that gently climbs 18-feet off the ground connects visitors to the land bridge while offering “a squirrel’s eye view of the trees and ground below,” Hardberger said at the opening in April.

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