Energy & Science

Another Problem for the U.S. Border Wall: Wildlife Destruction

New research shows man-made national boundaries stop species from reaching new habitats as climate change destroys their old ones.

Photographer: Adria Malcolm/Bloomberg
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The physical walls that seal off national borders not only deter humans, they may also prevent hundreds of land-bound mammal species from migrating to escape the impacts of climate change.

New research published on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is the first to project how man-made barriers—such as fortified fences and walls at border crossing—could restrict animals from moving to find more hospitable territory as the world both warms and becomes far drier in some places.