2026年7月4日(報道日)、トカゲ保護柵を24時間警備、バイパス工事でJuly 4, 2026 (date of report) — A Fence Built to Protect Lizards Now Needs Round-the-Clock Guards

At the construction site of the new B49 bypass in Reiskirchen, Hesse, Germany, a protective fence meant to keep an endangered lizard species — the sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) — away from the work zone is now itself under 24-hour guard, watched over by a security service with surveillance towers and cameras.

The reason: the fence keeps getting sabotaged. It has been torn down five times in recent months, pushing repair and security costs into six figures. In June, a 58-year-old woman was caught in the act. Helmut Klein, the official overseeing construction, described one incident as a coordinated operation.

The bypass itself has been debated since the 1950s and was approved by a two-thirds majority in a 2009 local referendum. It carries a federal budget of over 30 million euros and is expected to take five years to complete. Prosecutors are still investigating the sabotage as property damage.