Electric Fence to stop Bear

[dave1949]

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.

Wow, who would guess that's how elephants are fenced?

 

[westcliffe01]

The historical perspective on the elephant park is that it is directly ajacent to orange orchards, which in the early days (prior to the nature reserve) the elephant used to raid pretty frequently, causing substantial losses to the fruit farmers. The fruit farmers got together and hired a professional hunter to exterminate the elephant, which he very nearly accomplished. By the time the elephant numbers got down to just a few dozen in the region, public sentiment changed and the hunting was stopped, but that still left the problem of how to keep the elephants and fruit orchards seperated.

After a lot of trial and error someone hit on the railway track and elevator cable idea, since both items have a limited life and fortunately the local railway and several large elevator companies started donating materials to allow the fence to be built. The fence has now been around for a very long time, but the oldest elephants still remember the taste of the oranges, so one of the rules of the reserve is that one is not permitted to take any citrius fruit into the park or you might have your vehicle opened up like a tin can to "extract" the fruit.

This park is one of the few places in the world where you can literally get within inches of completely wild african elephant and there has never been a serious safety incident in decades. Views like this are not something most people expect:

 

[skipro3]

I work around the Tahoe area where I maintain weather data equipment that includes a snow pillow; a rubber bladder filled with anti freeze with a pressure transducer on it. The anti freeze is environmentally safe alcohol and the bears love to get drunk. An electric fence made of the wider white cloth with metal fibers in it works great. The bears can't get to the pillow for their booze party anymore. Lots of bear tracks and they get mad and trash everything else around, but they don't go through that electric fence.

 

[dave1949]

Westcliffe01,

That's really something. Thanks for sharing. It's a great example of going to the max to keep people and wildlife safe.

Dave.

 

[westcliffe01]

I think, to get back to this thread, one will always get an animal that has "not read the book", has a mean streak or sometimes a brain tumor or other health defect which may drive unusually aggressive behaviour. In such cases, relocating the animal just makes it someone elses problem. It looks like the OP has a problem with a persistant animal and there is always the risk of the animals kin learning the same bad habits if it is allowed to continue. I suggest that the OP talk to people from the local DNR regarding his options.

 

[dave1949]

Westcliffe01 - That makes sense, but I think the OP already 'dealt with' the problem on his own.

I guess my feelings about the issue are that the OP apparently has some cattle inside what he thought was a secure fence, the bear was attracted to the cattle, conflict ensues, the bear looses.

That will not be a sustainable model for the future - it is more like the early 1900's. I know I can come across pretty critical, but who speaks for the wildlife - while habitat slowly dwindles and species are under increasing pressure? Silence implies agreement.

The tipping point was the post of the electrocuted bear and some gloating over that bear's death. That is sick, and somebody needs to tell those people how sick it is, their parent's sure didn't.

Meanwhile, the entire L. Tahoe area has a massive problem with people not doing much of anything to minimize bear problems, that is very unfortunate.

The OP's last post says it all -'Some of you guys know what I'm up against.' Well, I know what the bear is up against.
Dave.

 

[valley]

Some bears cause thousands of dollars in damage and kill other animals. Relocating a murderous bear from my area to another man's is giving one human's problem to another. I have heard snibblers who don't care about human children and women, pick the side of killer bears over human beings.
"And the bear loses" No! Humans lose, property and lives of animals they love. Killing the killer stops further killing but does not return the murdered animals to the ones that love them.
Aside from that Mrs.Lincoln how did you like the play?

 

[dave1949]

Some bears cause thousands of dollars in damage and kill other animals. Relocating a murderous bear from my area to another man's is giving one human's problem to another. I have heard snibblers who don't care about human children and women, pick the side of killer bears over human beings.
"And the bear loses" No! Humans lose, property and lives of animals they love. Killing the killer stops further killing but does not return the murdered animals to the ones that love them.
Aside from that Mrs.Lincoln how did you like the play?

Good Morning Valley,

All I am trying to say, and probably doing a poor job of it, is there is a growing convergence of people and wildlife - of all kinds, not just bears.

We are a part of a web of life on this planet that we barely understand. Aside from the danger of messing with something we don't really know much about, the current science indicates we won't do very well in the future if that web of life is highly compromised by human actions.

You and I are coming from 180 degree perspectives. You live in bear country and want to raise animals. That's fine, but multiply that desire by a couple million people and you can see where this is headed for any predator species.

There is a 'bill to pay' for the continued growth in human population - either we spend more in resources to protect ourselves and wildlife and put a lot of emphasis on maintaining wildlife, or we pay for our actions by living in a diminished environment, which may not be healthy enough to sustain us. Ideally, we would realize that human population control will be required and it's time to figure out how we will do that.

It took 100 yrs or less to completley eliminate wolves in the eastern US. Now many of those same areas are overrun by white tail deer. These deer cause a lot of damage, disease and injury, there aren't enough deer hunters to control the populations. This is an example of not really understanding the world around us and that we aren't very good at seeing the long-term, big picture.

Your encounter with the determined bear is a microcosm of a much larger issue, but it exemplifies the heart of the issue. I encourage you to think about it from other perspectives. In the end your survival does not depend on your current choices - the bear's does however.

Dave.

 

[jimmyj]

We keep goats, sheep, poultry and we've had cows, pigs, llamas, donkeys etc. We have LOTS of bear around here and they are on our property fairly regularly.

We use 5 strand electric fence and we've never had any livestock lost to any predators (other than a weasel).

There are also coyotes as thick as theives here and the fence has never let us down.

 

[SPYDERLK]

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.

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!

How did you stop the problem?
larry