SPRINGERVILLE, Ariz. — On a luminous fall afternoon, a couple of Carey Dobson’s sheep graze in a pasture stretching across a high valley edged with ponderosa pines. A wire fence keeps them from wandering into the adjacent road.
But this is no ordinary fence. All along its length, long slips of magenta plastic flagging wave in the wind, like streamers on a parade float. No one knows exactly why, but wolves typically stay clear of these decorated fences. Dobson put up the “fladry” and electrified the fence about three years ago after losing nine sheep to wolves in one year.So far, the combination of visual repellent and electric shock seems to be working.
“From the time we started doing that in 2007 up to now, we’ve had zero wolf depredations,” Dobson said, sitting at the kitchen table of his family’s spacious log home on a private inholding surrounded by the Apache National Forest. “I think the fence has a lot to do with it.”
The Wolf Preservation Blog 