 This is a selection of trial reports and a few comments that indicate Electric Fencing is highly effective at restricting predators and restraining desirables. Mr M McLeod. Customer.
A badger family were constantly invading my garden and ruining my efforts. The electric fence I erected has elininated the problem without causing harm to the badgers. Personal Experience.
Elephant are a problem escaping from Gona-re-Nzou National Park (Zimbabwe) to neighbouring farmland causing havoc with poor subsistence farmers. Despite using expensive, 18" thick poles and a mining cable fence, the huge animals simply pushed the poles over. We erected an electrified 10 strand fence using 4" poles over 30 klm (18 miles). The Elephant did not break through once. We had to lower the fence in one area as a herd of Zebra had got trapped on the wrong side, away from their water, still they would not cross and had to be driven over by helicopter. Elephant Conflict in Sri Lanka
Electric fences are considered to be the most effective human-elephant conflict mitigation measure as long as they are strategically located and well implemented. Such fences also appear to be the people's favourite solution to the elephant problem since they physically separate human and elephant territories. The IUCN (2000) states that this method is a very economically efficient way to conserve these valued animals. Study on Fox predation on Lesser Tern Colony,
"Tracks and scats of the foxes were first noticed near the colony on 28th. May, and almost daily thereafter. On 18, 19, and 20th. June, observers recorded that the incubating terns seemed "skittish, nervous and uneasy." This phenomenon was first thought to be associated with hatching but no chicks were noted. Nest numbers decreased from 138 to 129 on 20th. June, to 61 on 22nd. June. By 23rd. June only 45 tern nests remained. Fox tracks crisscrossed the colony.
On 24th. June the electric fence was erected. On 25th. June we noted a slight increase to 48 nests; a week later, 2nd. July, we counted 60 nests, and by 6th. July, 85 nests. Fresh fox tracks were seen near the colony, but they never came closer than 10 ft to the electric fence, no tracks were found in the trial area. New nests outside the fence were consistently taken by the Foxes-none survived." At the end of the trial the fence was turned off and for over two weeks the tracks never crossed it. Unfortunately due to fox predation they suffered heavy losses and only one young fledged. The following year an electric fence was erected around the nesting site and this proved extremely effective at excluding foxes, so that 31 pairs reared a record 29 young. Deer.
From August 1979 through September 1981, two electric fences were used in Allegheny hardwood clear cuts in northern Pennsylvania to prevent browsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). A five-strand vertical fence, 58 inches high, and a "figure four" three-strand fence, 43 inches high, were used. The fences were charged with a battery-powered energizer having a maximum output of 5,800 volts. Average time between battery charges was about six weeks. More than 33 percent of all the seedlings in the unfenced portion of one clear cut were browsed annually while inside the fence no browsing was detected. At least one deer penetration occurred at each fence, but the effect of browsing on forest regeneration inside the fences was negligible. The "figure four" fence was not as effective as the five-strand vertical fence in preventing deer browsing. Materials cost $0.14 to $0.18 per linear foot, compared with $0.45 per linear foot for conventional 8-foot-high woven wire fencing.
(Journal of Forestry, Volume 80, Number 10, 1 October 1982 , pp. 660-661(2)) The responses of common brushtail possums, Trichosurus vulpecula, to a mesh fence with electrified outrigger wires were examined in a series of trials in an outside enclosure. Possums initially had no hesitation in approaching the fence. Their first contact was usually with the lower hot wire(s). Possums responded to shocks by jumping back, rolling, running away, grooming and head-shaking. Responses depended upon the part of the body contacting the fence. No possums climbed over the electrified fence during a total of 50 trials. Foxy (Forum comment)
Location: south west
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 5:23 pm Post subject:
Hi, I have been using electric fencing (netting) for a while now -we have a lot of foxes. Yesturday morning I watched a huge dog fox lurking in the paddock then slink into our garden - he walked around the perimieter of the electric fence but did not get closer than 2 feet -thats effective! I have heard that foxes can detect the current therefore avoid the fence. It was difficult to watch and not rush out but I was curious to watch his behaviour and how he would react to the fence. Summary of the Luangwa Solar Fencing project Farmers living in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia have a particularly hard time trying to grow crops. In addition to a lack of water, they have to deal with marauding animals that are looking for food. Elephants, hippo and buffalo routinely raid crops, trampling them in the process and ruining the harvest. This has forced farmers to abandon dry season farming and resort to illegal game hunting to provide food for their families.
In 1999, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), initiated a pilot project to see whether solar powered electric fences could be used to protect crops, and if so, whether farmers might be encouraged to stop hunting game and continue to farm in the dry season. Four enclosures were fenced, each enclosing enough land to provide plots for between 40 and 60 households.
In each case, the fences reduced the number of raids by wildlife, and crop production increased. Families had vegetables to eat during the dry season, and as food production became more secure there was a striking reduction in illegal game hunting. |
