In the past couple of years the Texas Department of Transportation has built corridors in several locations in Cameron County to help wildlife make it across the busy highways.
Today TxDOT released a photo of an endangered ocelot using the corridor under Highway 48 in the Brownsville area.
The picture, which was taken with a motion sensor camera in April 2017, shows the ocelot coming out of the brush near the corridor opening and almost looking straight into the camera.
Similar corridors were added to Highway 100 East of Los Fresnos and FM 106 East of Rio Hondo near Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.
Wildlife experts hope the animals use the underground concrete tunnels to avoid being struck by vehicles. Over the years a number of ocelots have been killed on roads in eastern Cameron County.
TxDOT says it has an environmental affairs division that is responsible for integrating environment considerations into all road and highway projects.
By Diana Eva Maldonado, Staff writer