A pest-exclusion fence is a barrier that is built to exclude certain types of animal pests from an enclosure. This may be to protect plants in horticulture, preserve grassland for grazing animals, separate species carrying diseases (vector species) from livestock, prevent troublesome species entering roadways, or to protect endemic species in nature reserves. These fences are not necessarily traditional wire barriers, but may also include barriers of sound, or smell. [1]
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Animals can be excluded by a fence's height, depth under the ground and mesh size. It is also important to choose a construction material that cannot be climbed; furthermore, sometimes it is necessary to create a subsurface fencing element to prevent burrowing under the fence. [2] [3] Fences are usually designed with the target pest species (the species to be excluded) in mind, and the fences are made to effectively exclude those species. This results in a wide variety of designs for pest exclusion fences (see examples below).
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Australia has utilised exclusion fencing since the 1860s. [6] The most well known exclusion fences in Australia are the barrier fences. Barrier fences are long (usually linear) barriers erected for the purpose of excluding particular species from large portions of Australia. The most well known barrier fences are the Dingo Fence and the Rabbit-proof fence, but there are many others.
In more recent years, pest-exclusion fences have been built around singular properties, or groups of properties. [7] [5] This practice is known as cluster fencing. [7] Cluster fencing allows farmers to monitor and mitigate predation pressure on livestock, and monitor Total Grazing Pressure (TGP) through accurate abundance data of native, pest, and domestic herbivores. [5]
Australia uses pest-exclusion fencing to separate several high-value or threatened species from introduced predators. One such example is Arid Recovery in South Australia, where feral cat, red fox and rabbit have been removed for the conservation of 5 threatened species.
Prior to human settlement New Zealand had no land-based mammals apart from three bat species. The introduced mammal species, such as rabbits, deer, and possum, have since caused huge ecological changes to the biota of New Zealand. Pest-exclusion fences are increasingly used for conservation of indigenous species by excluding all mammals.
Locations of predator-proof fences include:
Deer-proof fencing was used in Nagano Prefecture, Japan in a conservation effort to maintain plant diversity. The methods were effective for increasing species richness, but not as effective for conserving rare plants. [8]
The dingo is an ancient (basal) lineage of dog found in Australia. Its taxonomic classification is debated as indicated by the variety of scientific names presently applied in different publications. It is variously considered a form of domestic dog not warranting recognition as a subspecies, a subspecies of dog or wolf, or a full species in its own right.
European rabbits were introduced to Australia in the 18th century with the First Fleet and eventually became widespread. Such wild rabbit populations are a serious mammalian pest and invasive species in Australia causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage to crops. Their spread may have been enhanced through the emergence of strong crossbreeds.
In agriculture, fences are used to keep animals in or out of an area. They can be made from a wide variety of materials, depending on terrain, location and animals to be confined. Most agricultural fencing averages about 4 feet (1.2 m) high, and in some places, the height and construction of fences designed to hold livestock is mandated by law.
A feral animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some cases, contributed to extinction of indigenous species. The removal of feral species is a major focus of island restoration.
The animals of New Zealand, part of its biota, have an unusual history because, before the arrival of humans, less than 900 years ago, the country was mostly free of mammals, except those that could swim there or fly there (bats), though as recently as the Miocene, it was home to the terrestrial Saint Bathans mammal, implying that mammals had been present since the island had broken away from other landmasses. The absence of mammals meant that all of the ecological niches occupied by mammals elsewhere were occupied instead by either insects or birds, leading to an unusually large number of flightless birds, including the kiwi, the weka, the moa, the takahē, and the kakapo.
The bridled nail-tail wallaby, also known as the bridled nail-tailed wallaby, bridled nailtail wallaby, bridled wallaby, merrin, and flashjack, is a vulnerable species of macropod. It is a small wallaby found in three isolated areas in Queensland, Australia, and whose population is declining. In early 2019 the total population of the species was estimated to be fewer than 500 mature individuals in the wild and 2285 in captivity.
Invasive species in Australia are a serious threat to the native biodiversity, and an ongoing cost to Australian agriculture. Numerous species arrived with European maritime exploration and colonisation of Australia and steadily since then.
Sodium fluoroacetate is an organofluorine chemical compound with the formula FCH2CO2Na. This colourless salt has a taste similar to that of sodium chloride and is used as a rodenticide.
Zealandia, formerly known as the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, is a protected natural area in Wellington, New Zealand, the first urban completely fenced ecosanctuary, where the biodiversity of 225 ha of forest is being restored. The sanctuary was previously part of the water catchment area for Wellington, between Wrights Hill and the Brooklyn wind turbine on Polhill.
The Dingo Fence or Dog Fence is a pest-exclusion fence that was built in Australia during the 1880s and finished in 1885, to keep dingoes out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent and protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland. It is one of the longest structures in the world. It stretches 5,614 kilometres (3,488 mi) from Jimbour on the Darling Downs near Dalby through thousands of kilometres of arid land ending west of Eyre peninsula on cliffs of the Nullarbor Plain above the Great Australian Bight near Nundroo. It has been partly successful, though dingoes can still be found in parts of the southern states. Although the fence has helped reduce losses of sheep to predators, this has been countered by holes in fences found in the 1990s through which dingo offspring have passed and by increased pasture competition from rabbits and kangaroos.
The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the Rabbit Proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence, and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits and other agricultural pests, from the east, out of Western Australian pastoral areas.
An ecological island is a term used in New Zealand, and increasingly in Australia, to refer to an area of land isolated by natural or artificial means from the surrounding land, where a natural micro-habitat exists amidst a larger differing ecosystem. In New Zealand the term is used to refer to one of several types of nationally protected areas.
Orokonui Ecosanctuary, called Te Korowai o Mihiwaka in Māori, is an ecological island wildlife reserve developed by the Otago Natural History Trust in the Orokonui Valley between Waitati and Pūrākaunui, New Zealand, 20 kilometres (12 mi) to the north of central Dunedin.
Nuisance wildlife management is the selective removal of problem individuals or populations of specific species of wildlife. Other terms for the field include wildlife damage management, wildlife control, and animal damage control. Some wild animal species may get used to human presence, causing property damage or risking the transfer of diseases (zoonoses) to humans or pets. Many wildlife species coexist with humans very successfully, such as commensal rodents which have become more or less dependent on humans.
The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) is an Australian independent, nonprofit organisation, working to conserve threatened wildlife and ecosystems in Australia. This is principally achieved through the acquisition of extensive areas of land on which to establish conservation reserves ("sanctuaries") or by entering into partnerships with government, Indigenous groups, and private landholders to manage landscapes for effective conservation. AWC is the largest private owner and manager of land for conservation in Australia, currently managing 31 sanctuaries and partnership sites for wildlife conservation that cover over 6.5 million hectares of land across Australia.
1080, the brand name given to the synthetic form of sodium fluoroacetate, is used in New Zealand in efforts to control populations of possums, rats, stoat and rabbits, which are invasive species in the New Zealand environment. Although the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment deemed the use of 1080 in New Zealand "effective and safe" in a 2011 re-evaluation and the substance is widely considered to be the most effective tool currently available for controlling possums over large areas, it remains a contentious issue, with the majority of the debate occurring between conservationists and livestock farmers on one side and hunters and animal-rights activists on the other.
Cats are an invasive species in Australia. Because they are not native to Australia and were only introduced by European settlers as pets in the early 1800s, native Australian animals were not able to co-evolve with them. As of 2016, some 3.8 million domestic cats and up to 6.3 million feral cats continue to live in Australia. As one of the most ecologically damaging and costly invasive species in Australia, predation by both domestic and feral cats has played a role in the extinction of many of native Australian animals. For instance, cats are found to have significantly contributed to the extinction of at least 22 endemic Australian mammals since the arrival of Europeans.
Wadderin Sanctuary is a nature conservation project within the Shire of Narembeen in the eastern wheatbelt of Western Australia. It is about 290 km east of Perth and 8 kilometres north of the town of Narembeen. Wadderin is surrounded by a fox- and cat-proof fence that was completed in early 2008. This has allowed the reintroduction of fauna that is uncommon or locally extinct in the wheatbelt, and includes species that are considered threatened at the national level.
Heirisson Prong is a community managed reserve established for the conservation of threatened mammals at Shark Bay in Western Australia. The reserve is at the point of a long narrow peninsula of the same name that juts into Shark Bay from the south.
Mainland islands are areas on the North Island and South Island of New Zealand, set aside as reserves for endemic and native species, in a similar way to island reserves. Some mainland islands are managed by the Department of Conservation, while others are run by private trusts in collaboration of universities and local communities.
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