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Electric Bear Fence


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Viewing 21 posts - 51 through 71 (of 71 total)
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  • #1343998
    cat morris
    Member

    @catt

    Locale: Alaska
    #1344003
    kevin davidson
    Member

    @kdesign

    Locale: Mythical State of Jefferson

    Cool! Now to reduce the weight of such systems. I suspect that before long it will be de rigeur for groups. Probably awhile before it becomes solo viable.

    #1344029
    Tony Burnett
    Spectator

    @tlbj6142

    Locale: OH--IO

    Interesting that the video suggests using the fence to protect food *only*. Even though I’ve seen pictures of the fence around a tent before. Wonder how well it does against smaller critters, like marmots?

    #1344163
    paul johnson
    Member

    @pj

    Locale: LazyBoy in my Den - miss the forest

    NOT really about “fences”, but about electricity:
    i remember learning, many moons ago, in bio. class that many mammals have higher electrolyte concentrations in their body fluids than humans do. as such, they are more susceptible to the effects of electric shock. also, for example, to illustrate the higher electrolyte comment, even 110VAC can be deadly to some animals; rarely is to a human, unless the natural resistance of the skin is lowered through moisture/water. skin is generally 300k-500k ohms, IIRC – unless wet or sweaty, then can be 1/10 of those values just from a lot of sweat, or even less in some cases. [wish i had $20 for every time i’ve been shocked by 110 – i’d be able to buy all of the UL gear on my “wishlist”.]

    sometime electric training collars are used for some types of off-lead dog training (usually, but not exclusively, with “problem” dogs). the key issue there is getting the electrodes long enough to make contact with the dog’s skin.

    while it is essentially “non-ranged”, i wonder if an electric deterrant would be useful, in some cases, against a bear? for example, caught in the tent, by a bear – bascially awakened in the bivy. in these close quarters, what would be better to use: bear spray or a “bear-stun gun”??? electric/shock deterrant = you wouldn’t need to hit the eyes or nose with a spray; just make contact with any part of the bear’s body. for other occasions, hiking on the trail, the bear spray is apparently quite effective and provides a good “ranged” defensive weapon. i would guess a BearTaze would be easier to miss with than a well dispersed spray. well, it was just a thought (i.e., a “bear stun guns” and bear tasers” or some such gizmo).

    #1344802
    Bill Nichols
    Member

    @electrobearguard

    Electric bear fences do work very well. They have been used in Alaska by the USGS bear biologists for 10 years now. Please check out my web site for more information on bear fences.

    #1345118
    Dale Wambaugh
    BPL Member

    @dwambaugh

    Locale: Pacific Northwest

    If you just want to protect your food, a much smaller light kit could be made. A metal mesh bag suspended from a bush with poly line and insulators would do the trick. I’ll bet once a bear noses a metal mesh bag and gets “bit,” it would be reluctant to try again. Making bags with an obvious odor (could be pleasant to people) might even keep “trained” bears away by making the association.

    There’s no reason a bear can couldn’t have a charger built into it.

    Years ago my father had trouble with a dog in the neighborhood getting into our garbage cans and my father is an eletrician. He wired a fence charger to the can and insulated it from the ground. About 2am there was a big commotion and a large dog hitting mach 2 going down our driveway, screaming his head off. There was no need for a repeat lesson, but it did keep the raccoons out of the garbage too.

    Battery operated electric fence chargers have been available for years, with many models under $100. The kits offered for RV’s and cabins make snese, but a much lighter, more compact unit is needed for hiking. There is no need for all the stakes or even much wire if you charge a metal mesh bag suspended from non conductive line and insulators– all you need to do is too create the electrical potential between two points that the bear can get into.

    It still suprises me that we can’t find some chemical that bears find distasteful. I’ll volunteer my brother-in-law for testing if someone finds something promising :)

    #1345119
    Dale Wambaugh
    BPL Member

    @dwambaugh

    Locale: Pacific Northwest

    Check this out:
    http://www.hallman.ca/2705.htm

    I have an inquiry in about US sales. Note they recommend it for “protecting supplies from foraging nocturnal animals on camping or hiking trips
    .” Runs 4 weeks continuous on 4 D Cells.

    #1345123
    paul johnson
    Member

    @pj

    Locale: LazyBoy in my Den - miss the forest

    Dale,

    two excellent posts. many thanks. 4D cells…hmm…could do dbl-duty in my Binford 9000 Headlamp (aka “the portable lighthouse” aka Pelican 2660 headlamp).

    it will deter rodents and restrains stock, will it deter a bear too?

    BTW, i’ve actually worked with one dog (a sagacious Boxer) that learned to tolerate the pain of an electric training collar as it ran away to get beyond the ~0.25mile range of hand-held control/transmitter. After getting the dog to return (play posture trick), i dialed up the voltage on the collar. 2nd time the dog still took off (horrible yelping and stumbling – twice). i couldn’t bring myself to activate it a third time. it was clear that it was not going to work, so why torture the poor dog.

    my point is, that steel mesh sack would have to be strong enough that the bear couldn’t learn that it could destroy the sack while experiencing one relatively short duration period of negative reinforcement.

    oh…BTW…for testing purposes, can your b-in-law fit in a steel mesh sack?

    #1345404
    Dale Wambaugh
    BPL Member

    @dwambaugh

    Locale: Pacific Northwest

    I did get a reply from Hallman and they will sell direct to US buyers. I have no connction to them and I haven’t used the product.

    http://www.hallman.ca/2705.htm

    On the mesh sack, I was thinking of the existing bear-proof ones with the addition of the electrical charge. If it worked, then a bag with the electronics built in and a ground lead would make one compact unit.

    On the brother-in-law thing, I wasn’t considering a mesh sack— something more like hog-tied with marshmallows stuck to him and the anti-Yogi chemical added. [grinning like a pumkin]

    #1350674
    Anonymous
    Guest

    How long do the batteries for the electric fence last?

    My experience – I’ve noticed when I backpack in areas where bear hunter occurs, I rarely see bears and when I do they are always running away from me. In areas where they are protected, they seem to have little fear of me.

    My closest encounter with a bear:
    http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=70191
    I think New Jersey had their first bear hunt in a long time in 2004.

    #1351402
    David C. Menges
    Spectator

    @davidmenges

    Hunting? How does it help? Do the other bears watch?*

    Booby traps (Paul, the very first reply): rangers plant them, hikers carry them, bears boogie. Makes sense – time to learn.

    Hunger? “Oh boy, dog food!”** Same food every day. How do they do it? Gotta have some variety… And don’t mention colonoscopies!***

    Electric fences: I worked on farms. Pigs (smart) back up, start squealing and run through fence (they know it’s gonna hurt).

    Guns: I’ve heard bush pilots are required to carry big ones.

    What, no polar bears? Google found defense advice: trip-wire or motion detector systems, air horns, and pistol-launched “bear bangers”.

    Fear? Browse to http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/animals_shared_homes_planet/118632 and read that “Kermode bears lived in the forest, apart from humans for thousands of years, and have lost the instinctive fear of humans”. In Genesis 9:2 God says “The fear and dread of you [men] will fall upon all the beasts of the earth…”.

    Let’s see, is it “with cougars play dead, with bears fight back”, or the other way around? I know I’m going to get it wrong… Google says never play dead with cougars, but deciding what to do about bears gets complicated (possibly exceeding the time allotted). NPS summarizes it, http://www.nps.gov/lacl/bear_behavior_field_guide.htm, and Wikipedia on “bears” is interesting (it takes 36 beers for a bear to get smashed).

    And yes, several webs said electric fences can be very effective.

    * Lower numbers? Weed out aggressive bears? Evolve into wimps?
    ** Gary Larsen comic, a dog thinking as he happily watches owner prepare his food
    *** I had colon cancer –> frequent colonoscopies –> no food for three days

    #1351807
    Dane Burke
    Member

    @dane

    Locale: Western Washington

    If I break into your house, can I shoot you because you might attack me?

    Killing bears for human safety is ridiculous…we are the ones voluntarily putting ourselves at risk by entering the bears home.

    Humans aren’t always the top of the food chain. Accept it. If you can’t accept the risk, go hiking somewhere else. Don’t take the wild out of the wilderness, there’s so little still left.

    Great debate.

    #1351844
    Vick Hines
    Member

    @vickrhines

    Locale: Central Texas

    Ditto, Dane

    #1355266
    T. Sedlak
    Member

    @busotti

    The black bears of Yosemite/SEKI have not been known to have ever resulted in a human fatality. I HAVE read a story about a bear biting off the ear of someone sleeping with their food in the Rae Lakes area. It was this suggestion in the article that gave me a little concern. If you are a heavy sleeper the bear might have collapsed your tent/tarp as your wake-up call. Try finding your flashlight or defense spray then. This also could seriously damage one’s tarp/tent, too.

    Last summer I did some backpacking in both SEKI and Yosemite. The required bear canisters were heavy. In the SEKI Rae Lakes loop area, notorious for heavy bear activity, only the Garcia backpackers cache was allowed, as bears had been getting into other varieties (though I’m suspicious that the other varieties weren’t being closed properly). Near a trailhead I was stopped by a ranger and asked to prove that I had a bear canister. The Ursack has received conditional approval for use there this year. If they do well they will receive full approval, or else be banned again.

    Instead of sleeping with one’s food perhaps an acceptable compromise would be to put a bell or something noisy on the food, leaving the option for pepper spray deterrent if the bear can’t be scared off. It has also been suggested to me that pepper spray might be more effective than firearms. I’ve read accounts of non-fatal shots to a grizzly really pissed the animal off… you’d better have enough time and aim to make that next shot fatal. But a wide cone of pepper spray in the eyes of the animal would seem to leave more room for error.

    Regarding Timothy Treadwell: He apparently used bear spray and electric fences with good effect for some time. Unfortunately, his overvalued ideas led to him ditching these items several years before he met his demise. The accounts I’ve read describe that the attack upon him lasted some time, suggesting that his partner might have had plenty of time to provide a blast of pepper spray and then some.

    #1355305
    John Reed
    Member

    @johnwmreed

    Locale: Sierras

    I do not defend bear cannisters, but they are a fact of life in some areas of CA parks, re: Black Bears. However, I have never heard anyone say:

    “…sit back 50 yards or more and be patient”

    When a black bear enters your camp you should immediately scare it off (rocks, yelling, jumping up and down, etc.) no matter what technique you are using to protect your food. Bears need to have a healthy respect for humans and their food.

    #1360627
    Linsey Budden
    Member

    @lollygag

    Locale: pugetropolis

    While I’ve never seen a pig do it, I have seen horses run thru (and break) electric fences after realizing it only shocks momentarily.

    #1780905
    christopher reeves
    Member

    @ionstram

    So, this is probably (in fact I'm almost sure it is) overkill, but I'm doing the Rae Lakes loop soon as a solo trip and I decided to go ahead and carry the extra 3.7 lbs and set up a bear fence at night.

    Hope it never gets tripped but it will help me sleep more soundly at night.

    Now if anyone has ideas on how to make one lighter I'm all ears.

    I'll post a review from my trip after getting back.

    #1780910
    Bob Gross
    BPL Member

    @b-g-2-2

    Locale: Silicon Valley

    Yes, that is certainly overkill. Those electric fences are intended for grizzly bears, the dangerous ones. At Rae Lakes, all you may find are black bears, which are not that dangerous. Actually, they might be dangerous if they score your food and then you try to take it back.

    Black bears do not want to confront humans. They simply want to steal your food, by any and all means necessary.

    Besides, even if you have an electric fence, you are still required to store your food in a bear canister. So, you will be carrying an electric fence plus a bear canister. Good luck with that.

    –B.G.–

    #1780962
    Jerry Adams
    BPL Member

    @retiredjerry

    Locale: Oregon and Washington

    If you have an electric fence, you may accidentally touch it and hurt yourself.

    Just be careful peeing at night.

    #1781048
    christopher reeves
    Member

    @ionstram

    I can see the headline now: "Hiker electrocutes self while urinating in camp at night"

    #1781433
    M B
    BPL Member

    @livingontheroad

    With these horrible predacious bears, its a wonder any Native Americans even survived for the whiteman to wipe out.

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