MANYBERRIES, Alta. — Fences keep cattle in, but they can also be barriers to wildlife.
However, there is a way around the problem.
Wildlife friendly fences contain cattle while allowing wildlife to crawl under and better identify the tops of fences for leaping.
Multisar, a multi-agency effort to protect wildlife species at risk, paid for materials at one such project on the 40,000 acre J Bar J Ranch in southeastern Alberta.
Ranch manager Bayot Britschgi wanted to encourage the 800-head cattle herd to graze areas farther from a creek where they tended to congregate. A seven kilometre cross fence would do that.
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The new fence has a smooth wire at the bottom that is 45 centimetres off the ground. The top wire has reflectors attached using inexpensive siding clamps and reflective tape.
“My main reason (for the fence) was to keep the cattle out of there, but I like it anyway. I think it’s better. If one wire breaks, it’s the bottom wire because of the snow,” said Britschgi.
A higher bottom wire eliminates frequent breakage.
He said the fence manages the cattle and doesn’t seem to hinder wildlife, particularly antelope, which frequent the area and crawl under fences rather than jumping them as deer and elk do.
“They travel around quite a bit,” he said about antelope herds. “There is a lot of wildlife around this place, but it probably changes every year a little bit.”
Ray Pearson, who operates a 100-year-old 27,000 acre ranch nearby, has several kilometres of wildlife-friendly fencing.
“A cow never bothers the bottom wire, in my experience.”
Calves may sneak under occasionally but they also do that with ordinary barbed-wire fences, and this way it’s easier for the calves to return.
Pearson said Alberta Fish and Wildlife organized a group of volunteers to modify his traditional barbed-wire fence, and he saw quick results.
“Right after they’d done some, they saw a herd of antelope come and crawl underneath,” said Pearson.
Disappearing species shows a failure in environmental protection, he added, which is something ranchers don’t want to see.
“Most ranchers really care about the environment,” Pearson said. “We’re out in it all the time. It’s the reason we are ranchers.”
In addition, Multisar suggests a top wire no more than one metre high, and a smooth top wire to eliminate leg entanglement.
Left for dead
A U.S. study of 1,000 kilometres of rangeland fence showed the following:
- On average, one ungulate per year is tangled for every four km of fence.
- Most deaths are caused when an animal catches a leg in the top two wires while trying to jump over.
- Seventy percent of all fence related deaths are on fences higher than a metre.
- Ninety percent of carcasses found were fawns curled up near fences when they could not cross to follow their mothers.
- Woven wire fences topped with barbed wire are the most lethal to wildlife.
