How To Keep Wild Animals Away From Infrastructure: The Humane Way

Wild animals intruding on your property is frustrating at the best of times. However, there are times when it can become dangerous for both the animal and yourself. For example, if you are in an area with a high concentration of wind turbines, you will want to dissuade wild birds from coming into the location. The same is true for almost any kind of infrastructure you can imagine. However, while it is often vital that you keep the wild animals at bay, most people prefer to do so in the most humane way. But what are some techniques to keep them away without harming or killing them?

Use Decoys

Decoys are typically considered stop-gaps, giving you enough time to find a more permanent solution. Nevertheless, they are excellent at doing the job. They primarily work when attempting to rid themselves of a bird problem, but they can work equally well against some other animals. For instance, one use case is getting rid of geese humanely. Geese can be a real nuisance when it comes to infrastructure because they are considerably large animals. When they impact power lines or turbines, they can cause serious damage to your property and may even cause injury or death. You could set up decoys that look like their natural predators, which could be enough to scare them away to another location.

Get Rid of Food Sources

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), sometimes referred to as the wild animals , food waste will probably be a problem. This waste invariably attracts animals from birds to bears and almost everything in between. Fortunately, this is one of the most straightforward fixes you can use to prevent wildlife from entering.

1. Set up an audit of your waste management: Determine where your waste is going and how it is handled. Check how much you are producing and see if there is any way to reduce the amount.
2. Change waste bags: Once you have completed your audit, you might consider changing the waste bags to something more heavy-duty. This will make it more difficult for scavengers to rip the bags open.
3. Construct a garbage unit: if you don't have one of these onsite already, you should construct a unit separate from the main buildings. You must include a roof and a lockable door. Ensure it's made of sturdy material that can withstand bears and larger animals.

This is perhaps the easiest and most humane of all methods. If the scavengers are unable to scavenge, they won't come in the first instance, meaning you won't have to make a choice that could result in harming them.

Use Falconry

So far, the options have been relatively vanilla. In any case, if you want to try something truly unique, you can hire a falconer. These are experts who have trained their birds of prey , typically a falcon, to fly high above the infrastructure and scare away any potential animals. Most other birds and small animals are instinctively afraid of birds of prey and will stay clear wherever possible. This option can be pretty expensive but is ideal in situations where other choices are not possible. For example, If you have a building with a helipad, you will need to invest in robust bird control. Falconry can often do this for a fraction of the coast, and you will only need to hire them once in a while.

Use Guard Dogs

Most infrastructure installations will utilize some form of a guard and a guard dog partnership. Although this is generally used to scare away human intruders, it can work wonders to scare away animal invaders. The humaneness of this method is subject to debate, but if it is used correctly, the dog does not need to be set loose. Most of the time, the fact that there is a barking dog will be enough to repel certain animals from entering the perimeter. Furthermore, if the dog and guard perform regular patrols, other animals can smell the dog's scent, giving them enough warning.

Install Electric Fencing

Initially, it seems that this option is as far away from humane as you can get. Nonetheless, some installations like electricity stations or mines are full of dangers that will kill any animal that enters. When you look at it this way, a small electric shock is a welcome deterrent. For example, if a fox wanders into a large mining operation, it could get crushed to death by the giant plant machinery in operation. However, it would have run away if it had received a minor shock and not come back. The critical thing is to use a low voltage, enough that it is noticeable, but not too much that it causes excessive pain or death. To be extra sure, you could perform an inspection to see which trespassers are the most common and adjust the voltage for that size of the creature. If you go down the electric fence route, there are some things that you should know:

1. If you are using several rows, they must all be energized to deter animals from crawling or jumping.
2. If you are guarding against a particularly furry animal, you might need to increase the voltage.
3. To ensure that you remain as humane as possible, ensure you use bright colors to warn humans and certain animals.
4. No electric fence will be 100% effective and should be used in conjunction with other methods.

Create A Hostile Moat

Hostile moats are not cruel because they kill animals, but they make animals hesitant to enter them. You must set up a perimeter around the installation and turn it into a physical moat for this to work. You can keep it straightforward, like a large expanse of grass that denies the animal any quarry, or you could fill it with more harmful items like cactuses or other thorny plants. The idea is not to give any chance for land-based animals to enter the property. This isn't as effective against birds, but you can use it in conjunction with the decoys mentioned earlier.

Keeping wild animals away from essential infrastructure is an ongoing battle. Most people agree that it is best to be humane wherever possible. If you want to be completely effective, you should use a combination of overlapping techniques and create a land/ air area of denial.