Solar Fencing has been set up at few lowland districts in Nepal to control elephant attacks. Does the fence have same effects on reptiles especially snakes? Are there any behaviours recorded before anywhere?
Can anyone recommend research studies conducted before regarding effects on reptiles from such fencing?
Type of solar fencing depends on targeted species, if fencing are designed for large mammals like elephant it may not effect reptiles like snake as there could be enough space pass fencing from below. However, if fencing are made for small carnivores or rodents, there is possibility of stopping snakes. It can be a interesting and important study.
Chiranjeevi Khanal dada, It would be more interesting in documenting their behavior and evidence. We might find undocumented behaviors.
One of the difficulties with any type of electric fencing is that it can prove dangerous, even deadly, for the animals involved. For both Asian and African elephants, many have died as a result of protecting crops due to such fencing. Aside from this problem, the effectiveness of fences alone greatly varies depending on the context and experience of the elephants involved (O'Connell-Rodwell et al., 2000). A potentially more effective and safer treatment appears to be the use of beehives, either artificially produced via sound or live, which both African and Asian elephants will actively avoid (King et al., 2018; Soltis et al., 2014).
There are really two parts to your question: (1) How effective is electric fencing for deterring wildlife?, and (2) Do reptiles such as snakes learn similarly to mammals to avoid aversive stimuli such as electric fencing? As to the first question, as I've noted above, there are questions about how effective and safe electric fencing is for both African and Asian elephants, as well as viable alternatives. This is likely a case-by-case situation that is species- and context-dependent, but I would guess that there are often effective alternatives, including specific behavior training programs (see some of Ken Ramirez's elephant conservation and training work). As to the second question, the simple answer is that all organisms learn effectively via operant and respondent conditioning, as well as pseudo-learning (habitation and sensitization). It might be worth your time to reach out to Dr. Gordon Burghardt at the University of Tennessee, who is an expert in all aspects involving reptile learning, among many other things. If anyone has an answer to your question that is snake- and learning-specific, it would be Dr. Burghardt. The end result is that this could make for a really great study that provides some effective, safe, and humane options for protecting reptilian wildlife.
King, L., Pardo, M., Weerathunga, S., Kumara, T. V., Jayasena, N., Soltis, J., & de Silva, S. (2018). Wild Sri Lankan elephants retreat from the sound of disturbed Asian honey bees. Current Biology, 28(2), R64-R65.
O'Connell-Rodwell, C. E., Rodwell, T., Rice, M., & Hart, L. A. (2000). Living with the modern conservation paradigm: can agricultural communities co-exist with elephants? A five-year case study in East Caprivi, Namibia. Biological conservation, 93(3), 381-391.
Soltis, J., King, L. E., Douglas-Hamilton, I., Vollrath, F., & Savage, A. (2014). African elephant alarm calls distinguish between threats from humans and bees. PLoS One, 9(2), e89403.
Thank you so much for your suggestions and recommendations Eduardo J Fernandez
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