A puma is killed on the federal highway

Quintana Roo, Mexico – A shocking noise in the middle of the highway and then a car fleeing, so fast that no one can possibly make out its license plate number. Behind, in a curve, almost at the height of Punta Venado, a beautiful specimen of puma, emblematic (like the jaguar) of the autochthonous fauna, is left dead.

The unfortunate event occurred before noon on Thursday on the Tulum-Playa del Carmen stretch of the federal highway. Later, the puma, weighing 50 kilograms, was taken by personnel from the Federal Attorney General’s Office for Environmental Protection to be buried near Cobá.

The puma was only trying to cross the road to remain in its habitat. This is not the only case. Almost daily, along this highway, it is possible to find snakes, opossums, squirrels and other animals native to the Mexican Caribbean crushed to death by irresponsible drivers. A bridge serving as a passageway for the animals could help, after all it is humans who have built the roads.

Without a law that is thoroughly enforced and with little vigilance, there is a risk that these species will continue to die under the wheels of cars and maybe in the future also by the weight of the Mayan train while the jungle is devastated in the name of a brutal development.