Home»All Photographs»Highways, wildlife, and mitigation measures»Wildlife fencing

The most important function of wildlife fencing is to keep the animals off the road and reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions. If the fences are designed and maintained well they can be very effective and reduce collisions by at least 80%, sometimes close to 100%. However, by definition effective fences make the road into an almost impermeable barrier in the landscape. Therefore it is considered good practice to always combine wildlife fences with safe crossing opportunities for wildlife such as underpasses, overpasses, or gaps in the fence. Gaps in fences are typically associated with warning signs, speed bumps or other speed reducing measures, cross walks painted on the road surface, or animal detection systems. If fences are combined with safe crossing opportunities, the fences not only reduce collisions, but they also help guide the animals to the locations with safe crossing opportunities. Standard wildlife fencing in North America is about 2.4 m (8 ft) high. In most cases this substantially discourages large animals from entering the fenced road corridor, but it is not necessarily an absolute barrier. To further discourage animals from jumping or climbing fences the fences can be made higher, the meshes can be made smaller, outriggers can be installed at the top of the fences, and wooden poles can be replaced by metal posts. Dig barriers are strips of fencing material that are partially buried into the soil and attached to the main fence. They discourage animals from digging under the fence. Depending on the species there are many different types of fences or screens. Amphibians require smooth plastic strips or a very fine mesh with an overhang. Medium sized species such as badgers require finer mesh than ungulates such as deer and elk. Black bears can climb fences with large mesh sizes by placing their feet in the meshes. Smaller mesh sizes and outriggers with metal wire or even barbed wire can discourage climbers such as black bears and mountain lions or Florida panthers.

Please contact me if you would like to use any of the images. All content © Marcel Huijser