Virtual Fencing Can Help Buffalo Roam and Antelope Play
Hundreds of thousands of miles of fences ensnare and sometimes kill wild animals. GPS technology offers an alternative.
"Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play," goes the venerable Western folk song "Home on the Range."
Fences strung throughout the western United States to corral cattle and other livestock, however, block buffalo from roaming and restrict the play of deer and antelope. The deployment of virtual fencing may free wildlife to prance unfettered by barbed wire across the vast landscapes of the American West. Ranchers will also benefit from this cheaper and more flexible tool for managing the grazing of their herds.
How does virtual fencing work? "Animals (primarily cattle) wear GPS-enabled collars that emit sound, vibrations, and mild electric pulses to guide their movement to encourage them to stay within—or deter them from entering—designated areas," explains a November 2024 policy brief from the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Montana. Virtual fencing software and collars communicate through cell networks, base stations, or satellites.
By one estimate, more than 620,000 miles of fences crisscross the western United States. These barriers present significant challenges to the movement of wildlife such as mule deer, elk, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, and sage grouse. The Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks service has estimated that on average, one ungulate (hoofed mammal such as a deer, elk, or pronghorn) was found tangled for every 2.5 miles of fence. A 2023 study reported that half of radio-collared pronghorn, along with thousands more from the herd, died in deep snow when fencing stymied their migration to warmer pastures.
Livestock are trained for several days to respond to the signals emitted by the collars before being set loose to graze. Ranchers can keep track of the location of each animal, manage their herds, and even encourage them to graze on undesired or invasive species by adjusting virtual boundaries through apps on their cellphones or computers. Virtual fencing can also prevent overgrazing and protect ecologically sensitive areas such as wetlands, riparian zones, erodible soils, and wildlife corridors.
Researchers at Cornell University, with the support of the Bezos Earth Fund, are working to extend the benefits of virtual fencing to farmers and ranchers in low- and middle-income countries. Instead of collars, the Cornell team is developing a rugged small ear tag that incorporates geolocation, behavioral sensors, and boundary-setting stimuli.
PERC has launched a virtual fence conservation fund that will distribute $250,000 to encourage ranchers and conservationists to adopt this technology on public and private lands. Deploying virtual fences that enable buffalo to roam and antelope to play is a win-win for both ranchers and conservationists.
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Virtual Fences on the Range."
