On the Fence

People construct fences, sometimes across whole continents­, on the poetic assumption that good fences make good neighbors. Unfortunately, for wildlife, gated communities are rarely tranquil.

By Douglas Fox

A three-meter fence, anchored by sections of railroad track driven like stakes into the ground, cuts across South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province.
On one side sits Addo Park, a thriving slice of wilderness contai

ning the largest elephant population in the region. These beasts, with their rare tuskless females, represent a gem of biodiversity unique among Africa’s elephants. Just meters away on the other side of the fence stands row upon row of orange trees sagging heavily with fruit.

This fence might as well separate an oil refinery from a raging brush fire—such is the notorious appetite of elephants for citrus that they would long since have raided those orchards. Only the fence, packing 8,000 volts of gentle persuasion, has protected those trees.
By keeping citrus trees alive, this fence has also kept the elephants alive. It was conflict with farmers and trains which nearly extinguished Addo’s elephants 80 years ago. The construction of the fence between 1931 and 1954 saved these pachyderms from farmers’ guns and from themselves. Since 1931, the population has grown from 11 animals to over 400. “Good fences make good neighbors,” goes the Robert Frost poem—and this African parable seems to confirm it.

But within this quiet gated community called Addo Elephant Park lurk the beginnings of a crisis. Confinement created an ecological echo chamber which transformed the mix of species, the topography of the land, and even the fundamental nature of elephant society. Elephant-on-elephant homicide has soared in recent years, and the fat pads on these beasts’ rumps have deflated. The slow-moving crisis threatens to turn these keystone herbivores into malnourished paupers. It’s just one example of how well-intended fences can exert unintended effects.

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