Virtual fences saving wildlife as roadkill reports soar

Invisible fences are saving wombats, kangaroos and wallabies from becoming roadkill amid a concerning rise in WIRES call-outs for injured animals.

These are the invisible fences saving the lives of our precious Australian wildlife.

They aren’t connected by wire or slats — instead these fence posts use sensors to detect when a car is approaching, and then make noise and flash blue and yellow lights to scare off any nearby wildlife.

A trial on a kilometre stretch of Cullendulla Dr, north of Batemans Bay, was so successful, it almost completely eliminated calls to WIRES on the notorious roadkill hotspot.

“We see a lot of kangaroos, a lot of wallabies hit on the road and in some cases they are hit and they are still alive, or carrying a joey,” WIRES volunteer Janelle Renes said.

“Before the trial we could have two or three call outs a week, and then we went to none. Within the time from October to March there was just one wallaby, it’s a tremendous difference.”

Two orphaned Wallaroo joeys in the care of WIRES in the Hawkesbury.

The trial was launched in October last year, and was funded by the Great Eastern Ranges and the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia.

Ms Renes said the fence was so effective that when a solar powered pole went down and the fence stopped working for a time, the road deaths immediately started again.

A Wombat joey rescued by Wollondilly WIRES recently.

The sensors make noise and flash lights when vehicles are approaching.

Because of the huge success, a second stretch of virtual fencing will be installed later this year in Dunns Rd, and Ms Renes hopes other NSW councils will get on board.

“It’s a lot less traumatic for the rescuers, carers and council, staff and saves the insurance companies a lot of money from reduced claims,” she said.

“We’d like to see them everywhere.”

The virtual fencing comes as calls to WIRES about animals injured on roads soared to 7104 in the last financial year, up from 3381 in 2016-17.

Animals are often attracted to roads in search of food or water, to find new habitat after development, or fleeing natural disasters, which WIRES volunteers fear are behind this rise.

A recent report from insurer AAMI found that around half of all Australians have hit an animal while driving with dusk the most dangerous time.

In NSW Dubbo was the number one hotspot for wildlife accidents, followed by Goulburn and Sutton.

“By one estimate 10 million animals are killed on Australia’s roads each year with terrible implications for some threatened species,” Darren Grover, Head of Regenerative Country, WWF-Australia said.

“Councils with wildlife roadkill hot spots should consider trialling a virtual fence. If it works in your area then road users will be safer and the suffering and death of wildlife will be reduced.”

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