Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Summary
Eight electric fences were constructed and evaluated on 6 public properties in Wisconsin during 1983-85 to determine the feasibility of excluding predators from duck and pheasant nest cover. Flexinet and smooth wire fences were tested on plots ranging in size from 6-47 acres. Problems in maintaining high voltages were encountered due to human error, equipment malfunction, and natural factors. Maintenance problems decreased during the study, but the smooth wire design maintained consistently higher voltages than the Flexinet design. Predator penetration of the fences mainly coincided with instances of low voltages, but red foxes were apparently able to jump the Flexinet fences and opossums were able to penetrate fully-powered fences of either design.