fences
Caitlin Davies in Maun
THE Botswana government looks set to introduce “wildlife-friendly fences” – that control the movement of one species while allowing others to roam free – in the Okavango Delta.
Mary Kalikawe, a biologist for the Wildlife Training Institute based in Maun, produced a manual on such fences in 1995. She says the idea is still at the planning stage, but that experiments could begin on the fence built last year west of the delta to control cattle lung disease.
“This is something new and even if it has worked somewhere else, it’s different here,” she says. “Let’s start with this one and see how it works. Eventually it would be possible to change other existing fences.”
The options include using a “roll-back fence” (a fence that can literally be rolled back, allowing wildlife to pass through), leaving a gap underneath fences to allow smaller animals to get underneath and creating gaps at regular intervals. In addition, fences could be made more visible to animals to avoid surprise encounters and have in-built elasticity to avoid injury.
These options will be discussed at a February 27 meeting in Gaborone between representatives from the departments of animal health and wildlife, the National Conservation Strategy and conservation groups. – Okavango Observer