Training Animals to Respect Electric Fences

TRAINING ANIMALS TO RESPECT ELECTRIC FENCES

An electric fence is both a physical and a psychological barrier. All animals therefore need to be trained to respect these fences. It is therefore imperative that they receive a good shock the first time they make contact with the fence

Below are some tried and tested methods of introducing game to electric fences :-

1) Power up the electric fence as construction proceeds. This should be done on a daily basis. The reasons for doing this are :-

(i) It will ensure that the more inquisitive animals receive a good shock the first time they make contact with the fence. This will help reduce the time needed to train your animals as the leaders will either communicate, or the herd will sense, that their new perimeter is hostile.

(ii) It will reduce the incidence of damage to the fence line caused by animals testing it while it is off. Besides causing damage the fence, your animals will also lose respect for it and then it will take you longer to train them when the fence line is switched on.

(iii) It will enable you to check for faults as construction proceeds. It is very frustrating switching on a newly erected electric fence and then having to walk kilometres of fence line looking for faults.

2). Pad wipe the live wires with molasses. As a rule of thumb live wires should be situated at nose height to the animals you intend to control. A simple way of attracting the animals to sniff the live wires is to wipe some diluted molasses onto these wires. The animals will soon learn, via their damp muzzles, what electric fencing can do.

4) Install flashing neon lights on the fence.

Commonly called live lights, these lights draw the power needed to make them flash from the energiser's pulses. These flashing live lights improve fence line visibility and this in turn prevents nocturnal feeders, such as hippos, from blundering into the fence. Live lights will also enable you to see at a glance if your fence is working. Alternatiely, cans or aluminium strips can be attached to the fence wires to improve visibility.

5) Maintain power on the fence line at all times

Unlike on a stock farm where domesticated animals soon become accustomed to electric fences, on a game reserve one encounters a variety of species, and also changing populations of the same species, which will vary in size, age, and sex. These variations will result in different behavioural responses to the electric fence. Furthermore, the wilder an animal, the more sensitive it appears to be to an electric fence and the sooner it will detect if an electric fence is switched off. So rather than let your animals detect that the electric fence is switched off and have them break out, make sure that your electric fence is switched on at all times. The installation of live lights, or a simple electric fence voltage monitor, will also enable you to continuously monitor your fence line and be sure that the power is on. It is advisable to keep a spare energiser module as a standby.

6) Consider the Season.

Time of year and season will also influence your animal's response to an electric fence. In the dry months one is faced with the problem of poor soil conduction and inefficient ground earthing. It is better to introduce animals to electric fencing during the wetter months.

7) Keep the fence line clean and well cleared.

This will not only reduce voltage and power losses but it will also help prevent animals from blundering into the fence line. A strip three meters wide, on either side of the fence line should be kept clear of bush and trees and the grass kept short. A herbicide may be sprayed directly under the fence line but beware of causing erosion in hilly areas. Game will come to associate this well cleared strip with a shock.

8) Electrify trans-location Bomas.

Just as livestock farmers use a well fenced, electrified, training camp to introduce new animals to electric fencing, so too should the game farmer. By attaching electric wires onto the interior of your boma you can train your animals in the boma to respect electric fences. These offset electrified wires should only be switched on once the animals have settled down in the Boma.

All animals need to be trained to respect electric fencing. It is therefore important that animals that are being introduced to electric fencing are given time and space to learn that their new perimeters are hostile.