Electric Fence to stop Bear

[Ductape]

It would be a lot better to find ways to protect your property and family in non-lethal ways. We are the 'smart' creature in this story, we ought to be able to figure it out.

The way the human population is growing and expanding, there is less and less space for wildlife of all kinds. If the solution is always 'kill it', what will be left in the future?

It will be a sad and desolate place when we have just each other to look at while we slowly starve due to lack of biodiviersity or resign ourselves to eating stem-cell petri dish steaks.

Dave

I don't disagree with you....... I love animals myself. But my suggestion of the 30 06 was based on the fact that this is deemed to be a 'determined' bear. Giving me a choice between a determined bear, and my child....... I'm going to choose my child every time.

 

[dave1949]

I don't disagree with you....... I love animals myself. But my suggestion of the 30 06 was based on the fact that this is deemed to be a 'determined' bear. Giving me a choice between a determined bear, and my child....... I'm going to choose my child every time.

Well, me too.

But one aspect of the issue is the OP lives in bear country where they are known to be pests. It would be a wiser course to deal with this fact upfront than to react to a problem once created. You don't build a horse fence after your horse has run off -right?

 

[Chuck52]

Dave,

If the 1949 is your birth year, we share that. I also agree with your sentiment about senseless killing, but we probably disagree as to the definition of "senseless". I have spent a fair amount of time, energy and cash fencing my garden and fruit and nut trees to keep them safe from deer. I plan to put up a fence which will even keep raccoons, possums, rabbits and most other small pests out of my garden. However, I guess it is my fault that I did not plan ahead when planting my fruit and nut trees, so now I have no real way to fence them in a way that will exclude the possums and raccoons, and I really can't think of any reasonable fence design, short of total enclosure in something like hardware cloth, that would exclude squirrels. So....I eliminate those beasties. On the plus side, I doubt I am seriously impacting the gene pool in any of my target species.

Chuck

 

[dave1949]

Chuck52,

Yes, sadly, 1949 is my age. I am surprized how many TBN'ers are a lot older

You have done what you can to minimize the need to kill wildlife. That's good and I hope more people would do the same.

I spent over $1000 fencing in a yard for our dogs - still have had to pull porcupine quills out of both their noses. But that happened outside the fence.

Squirrels are smarter than people - it is a proven fact

One thing I have noticed, dogs tend to keep some wildlife further away from the house. Moose will stand next to the fence looking at them, but coyotes keep real quiet and distant. Deer seem to learn the dogs are inside the fence and can't get to them. But they won't jump or push over the fence with the dogs around.

Dave.

 

[valley]

Thanks guys, some of you understand what we were up against. This bear wouldn't let us sleep for over a week. He knew when I was in the barn, and would get close enouge to see if I could make that big noise again. This bear,I'm guessing, could be responsable for some missing people in these mountains, hikers, nature lovers. He would circle the fence and strumb it to see what I could do. First time I left the barn at 3:45 he was back over the fence and tearing at the barn by 4:00am. This bear will not be a problem anymore. Thank God!

 

[valley]

This fence slowed him down. Its 6' fence with large rocks at the bottom. you can see how he has pushed it in. The nail board across the top was a big plus. 16p nails shot with a nail gun.

 

[Skyco]

Will the DNR or some wildlife "rescue" group not trap the bear and relocate him?


Of course this guy might now have a different opinion of the wisdom of relocating bears-http://www.4everhunting.com/Bearreleasegonewrong.html

 

[dave1949]

Valley,

I did some reading of the Tahoe Daily Tribune, which I guess covers your area. Sounds like there are a lot of people not being very careful with garbage, bird feeders and so forth.

I think Maine has more black bears than California, no brown bears. I have heard of only a couple cases in the past 15 yrs. where people had a bear problem here. In your area, bears are being euthanized and relocated on a weekly basis during mid to late summer it seems.

So, either you have smarter bears, or brown bears cause most of the problems, or ???

Dave.

 

[teg]

Of course this guy might now have a different opinion of the wisdom of relocating bears-Bear release gone wrong

Did you notice that the red truck drove away!!! Wonder if the cage slipped out as he drove off??? With friends like that...

 

[westcliffe01]

Electric fences are used to keep elephant contained. The older animals have in some cases figured out that they can push a younger animal against the fence to reduce the shock that they get and have successfully defeated the fence, but those animals always end up being euthanized. The Addo Elephant park has 450 elephant surounded by a fence made of railway track for the uprights and lift cable for the wire (recycled material which has been shipped in from around the world). On the inside of the "strong" fence is the electric fence, which is strung on wooden poles.

In order for an electric fence to work, the main fence needs to offer suffiicient resistance for long enough that the animal gets a real walloping from the electric fence. If the energy level is high enough, there is no animal that will tolerate it. But if the main fence is too weak, they only have to endure a couple of whacks before they get through. The fence controller may also be configured to "react" to a breach by increasing the frequency of the impulses when a leakage current is detected as well as set off an alarm so that staff can go out to inspect the fenceline.

An effective fence is both expensive and unsightly. In africa, the fence is needed more to keep people with criminal intent out than animals in many cases, and your life may depend on it.