AASHTO Journal - TxDOT Helps Protect Galveston’s ‘Ghost Wolves’

On a quiet stretch of Farm-to-Market Road (FM) 3005 near Galveston Island, TX, local wildlife experts – in partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation – have installed warning signs to reduce collisions with a rare species of coyote known as “ghost wolves.”

[Above photo by TxDOT]

Ghost wolves are coyotes that harbor DNA from the critically endangered red wolves that used to thrive in southeast Texas until the late 1900s. As the red wolf populations declined, they crossbred with coyotes. As a result, DNA remnants from the red wolf can be found in the genetic code of this isolated island coyote population.

The effort to add wildlife crossing signs began in 2024, when researchers from the Gulf Coast Canine Project got in touch with TxDOT and voiced their concerns about the “ghost wolf” mortality rate along FM 3005.

To understand the issue, Brooke Bowman – a TxDOT environmental project planner – attended the third annual “Ghost Wolves Town Hall” in January 2025. At this event, researchers and members of the community discussed the importance of ghost wolves and how to protect them as development on Galveston Island increases.

TxDOT explained in a blog post that Bowman and her team worked with Galveston County officials to collect and analyze coyote mortality data along FM 3005 from 2020-2025 – pinpointing the locations along FM 3005 with the highest mortality rates for ghost wolves, which would be where warning signage could be most effective.

The agency and its partners selected 10 locations across a 19-mile stretch of FM 3005 to place the wildlife crossing signs; half on the westbound side and half on the eastbound side to help ensure drivers coming from both directions are aware that wildlife is more likely to cross in these areas.

This sign installation project – completed in March – is also expected to benefit many other species that inhabit the island. By alerting drivers to possible wildlife crossings, the signage also helps decrease the risk of wildlife-vehicle collisions that can endanger motorists, TxDOT stressed.

Many state departments of transportation are also deeply involved in projects to provide wildlife-vehicle collisions.

For example, the Idaho Transportation Department recently started construction on three wildlife underpasses on US-30 between the town on Montpelier and the Wyoming border.

That project includes the installation of two concrete box culverts, one bridge, and six miles of eight-foot-tall fencing between highway mileposts 442 and 448.

The ITD noted in a statement that this short section of US-30 intersects with a “topographic bottleneck” known as Rocky Poin, that funnels migratory mule deer along a regionally important mule deer migration route. Once completed by the fall of this year, this underpass project will improve driver safety while protecting migrating deer and other wildlife, the agency said.