Efficacy of wildlife-friendly fence designs promoted for containing domestic sheep

On the Ground • Fencing is important for livestock management on rangelands and has proliferated across the western United States. • Traditional fence designs may hinder big game movements, resulting in injuries, entanglements, and death. • Wildlife-friendly fences are designed to enhance big game passage but may reduce containment effectiveness for small-bodied livestock like sheep. • Wildlife-friendly fence designs are widely promoted by conservation agencies but are largely unevaluated for their efficacy in containing livestock, especially smaller species like sheep. • Sheep crossed five of the nine fence designs, but only by one of the four sheep groups; height of the lowest wire strand was a significant predictor of crossing. Crossing events were driven by social dynamics and not forage utilization.