[Esip-envirosensing] Bear deterrence methods for sensor stations

Mon Mar 28 18:37:52 EDT 2016

You may want to try the Critter Gitter (http://www.amazon.com/Amtek-Critter-Gitter/dp/B0028PEQZU), which is a siren and light that is connected to a heat and motion sensor.  It costs about $60 and runs off a 9 volt battery.  I haven't used it myself, but I know that NH Fish and Game has recommended it in some circumstances.  I heard it also works well on people, so you have to take that into consideration.

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John L. Campbell, PhD
Research Ecologist

Forest Service
Northern Research Station

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Caring for the land and serving people

From: Esip-envirosensing [mailto:esip-envirosensing-bounces at lists.esipfed.org] On Behalf Of John Porter via Esip-envirosensing
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2016 5:03 PM
To: esip-envirosensing at lists.esipfed.org
Cc: John Porter <jhp7e at eservices.virginia.edu>
Subject: Re: [Esip-envirosensing] Bear deterrence methods for sensor stations

This adds to the complexity of the system, and hence the probability of failure, but a good way to keep the electrical fence from draining your batteries is to not run the fence except when bears are around!  Add a PIR (or a couple of PIR sensors, e.g., http://www.amazon.com/Generic-12V-24V-Automatic-Motion-Lighting/dp/B00EQ20C6K) to detect motion by warm-blooded animals and switch on the fence.  With a bear to provide the target, you could probably set the sensitivity to "low" and minimize false triggers.

There are PIRs available for turning on and off lighting as noted above, or you could add a sensor (e.g., https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13285) to an existing datalogger, or a separate Arduino. The main issue would be the power costs of the PIR sensors themselves (which is about 2 mA at 3.3 volts), so some experimentation might be in order.

 -John Porter
On 3/28/2016 2:47 PM, Scotty Strachan via Esip-envirosensing wrote:
Brian, I'll chip in on the power side as well.

Like Renee says, sometimes you have to size the PV array and battery bank for the marginal condition. I have a site in a forest that runs sap flow sensors, a met station, radios, cameras, etc. The clearing is not large, and my solar panels always have some shade on them somewhere, especially in winter. The solution was to run nine 250w panels into two separate charging/battery arrays w/~300Ah+ each and mount the panels at 60deg for snowshed. I only get a couple hours of charging time per day, but it's enough to bring the batteries back up fast.

Here's the other thing - you don't want non-science systems (like fences, etc) to run down the same batteries that you use for your loggers and data collection. When I have dual-redundant PV/battery systems, I then run a passive power combiner to a main 12v bus and then use fused Low Voltage Disconnects for each subsystem, each set at different cutoff voltages depending on priority. At no time do I allow a system (even dataloggers) to pull down a battery bank lower than 25%, otherwise you just kill your batteries during a long outage and still have no data.

For instance, your could place your feed to your fence energizer (or it's separate battery trickle charger) with a conservative LVD setting (like 11.5v), and your data collection on 11v or lower.

Make sure you have really good grounds on your fence circuit.

Example of LVD product I use: http://www.rogue-engr.com/12-Volt-30-Amp-Low-Voltage-Disconnect_p_15.html

Example of passive combiner I use when I go with parallel PV-charger-battery arrays (this way I can lose a battery, charger, or panel and still have a functioning system, well as run a non-critical device separately from one of the battery banks and still not compromise the science system): http://www.newmarpower.com/Automatic_Power_Selectors/Automatic_Power_Selectors.html

If you are into electronics, you can get creative with this sort of thing. The trick is to use devices which are not adding liability to the hardware dependency list....

Cheers,
Scotty

Scotty Strachan
Coordinator, Environmental Research
Department of Geography
University of Nevada
web: scottystrachan.com
email: scotty at dayhike.net<mailto:scotty at dayhike.net>
cell: 775-721-1308
On 3/28/2016 10:39 AM, "Renée F. Brown" via Esip-envirosensing wrote:
I agree- electric fences are the best way to keep wildlife out. Not sure of your power design, but sounds like you do have some sort of solar panel and battery system. You may need to consider beefing up both your solar panel system as well as your battery bank such that the batteries alone can get you through cloudy and/or snowy days, while the panels are large enough to recharge the battery bank when enough sun is available.

Renee

-
Renée F. Brown
Sevilleta LTER & Sevilleta Field Station
Department of Biology
University of New Mexico

On Mar 28, 2016, at 11:11 AM, Wyngaard, Jane R (398M-Affiliate) via Esip-envirosensing <esip-envirosensing at lists.esipfed.org<mailto:esip-envirosensing at lists.esipfed.org>> wrote:

I worked on some weather stations that had to be protected from baboons - we also had to use electric fences in the end.

I wasn't on the power supply design but is it literally a matter of too little sunshine or would perhaps a more sophisticated recharge system help?

Jane
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jane Wyngaard, Ph.D
Postdoctoral scholar
Instrument software and science data systems Section (398)

University of Southern California
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive MS: 158-256D
Pasadena, CA 91109

Phone:  818/354-6237
Email: Jane.R.Wyngaard at jpl.nasa.gov<mailto:Jane.R.Wyngaard at jpl.nasa.gov>
http://sunset.usc.edu/~jwyngaar/<http://sunset.usc.edu/%7Ejwyngaar/>

From: Esip-envirosensing <esip-envirosensing-bounces at lists.esipfed.org<mailto:esip-envirosensing-bounces at lists.esipfed.org>> on behalf of Brian Herndon via Esip-envirosensing <esip-envirosensing at lists.esipfed.org<mailto:esip-envirosensing at lists.esipfed.org>>
Reply-To: Brian Herndon <bherndon at uga.edu<mailto:bherndon at uga.edu>>
Date: Monday, 28 March 2016 07:50
To: "esip-envirosensing at lists.esipfed.org<mailto:esip-envirosensing at lists.esipfed.org>" <esip-envirosensing at lists.esipfed.org<mailto:esip-envirosensing at lists.esipfed.org>>
Subject: [Esip-envirosensing] Bear deterrence methods for sensor stations

Greetings all,
The Coweeta LTER has environmental sensor stations located throughout the southern Appalachians and as our sensor network has expanded to 68 stations, the incidents of black bear damage have increased.  These stations are located in fairly remote hardwood forests requiring equipment to be hiked in. Many are setup like the image below with soil moisture and temperature probes radiating from the base.  We bury the sensor cables so most of the issues have been with the enclosure and solar panel.  We have tried installing electric fences around the enclosure, but maintaining battery power has been an issue.  I would like to receive any suggestions, hear some war stories, etc. as to how any of you have been able to prevent wildlife damage (especially bears) to sensor stations.

Brian Herndon
Information Manager
Coweeta LTER<x-msg://6/coweeta.uga.edu>
706.542.5691
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John H. Porter

Dept. of Environmental Sciences

University of Virginia

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