{"title":"No benefit in using rubber‐coated wire to counter loss of voltage due to tall grass in large carnivore deterring fences","authors":"Eva Hedmark, Carlos Cardoso Palacios, Jens Frank","doi":"10.1002/wlb3.01142","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Electric wire enclosures to protect livestock represent one intervention to mitigate negative impacts of large carnivores. However, appropriate fence construction and voltage level in the live wires are crucial to deter carnivores. To ensure that the voltage level remains sufficiently high, maintenances and clearing the wires from tall or growing vegetation is regularly needed. In this study, we investigate the performance of a fence wire coated with conductive rubber, claimed by the supplier not to short circuit and drop in voltage due to contact with e.g. ground and vegetation. We examine the voltage of the rubber‐coated wire during contact with soil, ground, and wet vegetation and observed a voltage loss comparable to that of the standard metal fence wire. Our results imply that the rubber‐coated wire does not perform better than a conventional metal fence wire when in contact with growing grass and other elements that usually short circuit an electric fence.","PeriodicalId":54405,"journal":{"name":"Wildlife Biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Wildlife Biology","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/wlb3.01142","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Electric wire enclosures to protect livestock represent one intervention to mitigate negative impacts of large carnivores. However, appropriate fence construction and voltage level in the live wires are crucial to deter carnivores. To ensure that the voltage level remains sufficiently high, maintenances and clearing the wires from tall or growing vegetation is regularly needed. In this study, we investigate the performance of a fence wire coated with conductive rubber, claimed by the supplier not to short circuit and drop in voltage due to contact with e.g. ground and vegetation. We examine the voltage of the rubber‐coated wire during contact with soil, ground, and wet vegetation and observed a voltage loss comparable to that of the standard metal fence wire. Our results imply that the rubber‐coated wire does not perform better than a conventional metal fence wire when in contact with growing grass and other elements that usually short circuit an electric fence.
期刊介绍:
WILDLIFE BIOLOGY is a high-quality scientific forum directing concise and up-to-date information to scientists, administrators, wildlife managers and conservationists. The journal encourages and welcomes original papers, short communications and reviews written in English from throughout the world. The journal accepts theoretical, empirical, and practical articles of high standard from all areas of wildlife science with the primary task of creating the scientific basis for the enhancement of wildlife management practices. Our concept of ''wildlife'' mainly includes mammal and bird species, but studies on other species or phenomena relevant to wildlife management are also of great interest. We adopt a broad concept of wildlife management, including all structures and actions with the purpose of conservation, sustainable use, and/or control of wildlife and its habitats, in order to safeguard sustainable relationships between wildlife and other human interests.