P3, a female pronghorn antelope, crossed hundreds of barbed-wire fences, dozens of roads, several rivers and the Trans-Canada Highway in 2003.
The animal’s collar allowed wildlife conservation researchers to track its migration from southeastern Alberta near Manyberries to an area around Unity, Sask., and then back to Canadian Forces Base Suffield north of Medicine Hat, Alta.
“She walked about 445 kilometres in a three-week period,” said Paul Jones, senior biologist with the Alberta Conservation Association.
But that was just one way.
Somewhere in the course of that year, P3 fawned, seems to have lost the fawns and finally dropped its collar so that researchers could analyze its contents.
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Migration and movement don’t happen easily for antelope in many cases, Jones told a recent session of the Wildlife in the Wind speaker series in Lethbridge.
Fences are significant barriers for animals that must crawl under them to traverse their range.
Animal and conservation groups are working to encourage wildlife-friendly fences that can ease antelope travel. P3 has helped their efforts, said Jones.
“She was sort of our poster child for getting this collaboration work that’s going on between Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana looking at conservation.”
Research has also involved the placement of motion-activated cameras along fence lines to see how antelope interact with barriers. The cameras show considerable time is spent walking back and forth along fences as the animals seek a suitable crossing point.
Jones showed photos of antelope with exposed flesh and scars on their backs where damage has been in-flicted by low barbed wire fences.
The ACA, the Alberta Fish and Game Association and other groups are now encouraging the use of wildlife friendly fences with a smooth wire on the bottom at least 45 cent-imetres off the ground.
Jones said rancher reaction to the idea has been mixed.
“There’s variation right across the board when you talk to some of the ranchers,” he said.
“Some want (fences) really low, 12 inches (30 cm). Others say they’ve already got their fences at 20 inches (50 cm) and don’t have a problem.”
Those lukewarm to the idea of a higher bottom strand tend to worry about calves escaping from pastures, but Jones said calves that can get under the fence could easily get back inside enclosures to rejoin their mothers.
He suggested ranchers try a wildlife-friendly fence on an interior site to see how it works. If no problems occur, they might consider altering their perimeter fences.
Alberta Fish and Game and volunteers it has organized have altered 600 km of fence line in the province by replacing the bottom strand of barbed wire with double strands of smooth wire, and raising it to 45 cm.
Jones said at that rate it would take 400 years to alter the 67,000 km of fence that could affect antelope.
Though volunteer fencing bees will continue this year, he said other strategies are needed to make swifter progress. That is slowly occurring.
As an example, he said volunteers altered 75 percent of the northern boundary along the CFB Suffield base in 2009.
A year later, the military completed the entire perimeter, 120 km.
The Aeolian Recreational Boundary Institute has also made “pronghorn emancipation” one of its projects.
Jones said current research involves “goat bars,” which are lengths of PVC pipe inside which the bottom two wires of fences can be contained. That makes a smooth, higher place in the fence for antelope to squeeze under.
The bars can be installed and uninstalled within minutes, said Jones.
Goat bars are so named because some Americans refer to antelope as “speed goats.”
Trail cams have shown that antelope are reluctant to use the goat bars unless they are along known crossing sites. Even then, results are mixed, said Jones.
So far, white PVC has been used. Other colours might be less threatening for antelope, or other factors might be affecting the animals’ use of the bars.
Research continues.
