In the Amazon, One Woman’s Ingenious Canopy Bridges Are Helping Monkeys Cross the Road Safely

February 21, 2025 journo

A monkey crossing one of Fernanda Abra’s bridges – credit Reconecta, screengrab

Why did the monkey cross the road? Because someone built a bridge for him.

Deep in the Amazon Rainforest, motorists hauling along the few highways that bisect the great ecosystem will have seen a series of rope bridges extending from the tree tops over their heads.

They are the result of one ingenious and now-decorated conservationist who decided to climb up and be counted.

Fernanda Abra has worked alongside one of the many indigenous groups of the Amazon—the Waimiri-Atroari people—to create a unique-in-the-world system of wildlife road crossings specifically for tree-dwelling species.

Primates like the Groves’ titi monkey and golden-handed tamarin have witnessed their homes cut in two by asphalt roads, and often have no choice but to brave the white lines on foot.

In fact, as CNN reports, it was on asphalt that Abra saw her first Groves’ titi, one of the world’s 25 most endangered primates.

In response, this postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian’s Center for Conservation and Sustainability launched the Reconecta Project (remember, it’s Brazil, so it’s pronounced He-conecta)

Leveraging the Wairmiri-Atroari’s knowledge of where local wildlife pass and congregate, the project has used grant funding to build 30 wildlife road crossings that present as a horizontal rope and or wire bridge. Some incorporate Tyrolean traverses as well.

Each crossing has a camera trap mounted on the anchor poles so that Abra can monitor who is using the crossings. The data will help inform conservation actions, including population estimates, as well as where to put more road crossings.

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“Every time I see the video of the monkey using my canopy bridge, it’s wonderful because we are avoiding the situation of road mortality,” says Abra. “Connecting the population, we can make it stronger and allow it to grow.”

Abra and Reconecta won the 2024 Whitley Award for Nature in honor of her work protecting the region’s primates.

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The best part about the story, aside from the fact that drastic reductions in road mortality in species like the Schneider’s marmoset, Spix’s red-handed howler monkey, and the Guiana spider monkey, is that the Reconecta Project is expanding out from the Brazilian state of Amazonas to Mato Grosso, where she’s already canvassing universities, philanthropists, and governments for funding to build more of these bridges.

“What amazes me about Brazil is the richness that we have, the wonderful biodiversity we have here,” says Abra, “and I will do everything that I can as a person, as a professional, as a conservationist and researcher to protect this rich biodiversity.”

WATCH the video of her work, narrated by Sir David Attenborough…