Animal husbandry – Animal controlling or handling
Reexamination Certificate
2003-07-23
2004-12-07
Carone, Michael J. (Department: 3644)
Animal husbandry
Animal controlling or handling
C256S016000, C256S017000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06827042
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to devices designed to prevent animals from entering an area, and in particular relates to devices to prevent wild elephants from leaving an elephant sanctuary or reserve and entering an area of human population or cultivated croplands.
The rapid decline of wild elephant populations throughout the world is a well-documented phenomenon. In India, which contains the world's largest concentration of wild Asian elephants, there remain only an estimated 30,000 elephants in the wild. This tiny population is declining at an alarming rate, making the Asian elephant an ever-increasingly highly endangered species. The two principal reasons for the decline of wild elephant populations are poaching and loss of habitat. While problems with poachers often gamer the news headlines, it is the problem of loss of habitat that presents the greater long-term danger to the existence of wild elephants in India and other parts of the world. Those areas where wild elephants remain also are the areas of the world where human populations are increasing the most rapidly. India, for example, is experiencing a meteoric increase in its human population; this inevitably leads to the expansion of humans further and further into wild elephant areas as people clear new croplands.
The increase in human habitation in wild elephant areas, coupled with the loss of habitat and concomitant loss of food and water resources for the elephants, has led to a catastrophic clash between human and wild elephant populations, which the elephants are losing. The danger to both wild elephants and humans living in close proximity are greatly exacerbated when the habitat area available to wild elephants is reduced. An average adult elephant requires 200 kilograms of food and 200 liters of fresh water per day. As the elephant's wild territory shrinks, elephants have increasingly turned to raiding crops and food stores maintained by humans in nearby areas. Humans caught in the path of these desperate elephants may be injured or killed. For example, in the State of Chhattisgarh, in far northwestern India along the Pakistani border, wild elephants killed at least 34 people in the period of 2000-2003. In the State of Assam, in northeast India, more than 100 people were trampled to death by elephants during this same period. Assam contains the largest population of wild elephants of any Indian state.
In order to protect their crops and the lives of their families, farmers in the areas near wild elephant populations have turned to killing the elephants who raid their lands. The problem is rapidly increasing in severity. In the state of Assam, for example, only one elephant was killed by farmers in 2000, but 17 were killed by farmers in 2002. Most of the elephants killed by these farmers were poisoned. Sadly, farmers have used even more inhumane methods to deal with the elephant incursion problem. In the southwest Indian State of Kamataka, for example, one group of farmers were reported to have fed wild elephants fruits containing low-grade explosives. The explosives ruptured in the elephant's mouths, causing them to die a slow and painful death.
The deaths and injuries to both humans and elephants in the wild elephant border areas have led authorities to try and address these problems as best they can. Usually the solution is to simply kill the small number of elephants that are viewed by the local farmers as presenting the greatest threat. In March of 2003, two Asian elephants near Sootea in the state of Assam were put to death by an elephant hunter hired by the state government after a rampage in which the elephants killed 12 people. Such elephant hunts may result in very cruel treatment toward elephants. In addition, there is evidence that such killings provide no solution, since the vacuum left by the death of one or a few elephants in an area is quickly filled by other elephants. A long-term solution cannot be achieved by culling a few elephants from a herd as the forces that cause the problem act upon the herd as a whole.
India and other countries with wild elephant populations have attempted to protect the elephant herds by establishing a system of elephant sanctuaries and reserves. These sanctuaries and reserves, however, are typically rather small, and are highly fragmented across a wide area. Elephants by nature tend to roam over a wide range, and thus confinement of the animals into a small reserve is difficult, greatly increasing the likelihood of disastrous contact between wild elephant and human populations. One potential solution to this problem currently being explored by elephant experts is the creation of “corridors” of safe passage between reserves. In principle, elephants could travel between reserves in different areas by passing through these narrow corridors, giving each elephant herd a range that is effectively larger than isolated reserves can provide. In order to be effective, however, it would be necessary to somehow prevent elephants passing through these narrow corridors from moving into human populated areas situated along the corridor.
The problem then is how to contain the elephants. Due to their great size and strength, simple fences are a generally ineffective solution to preventing elephant ingress into an area. The principal current method employed for blocking the passage of wild elephants into a populated area involves the digging of trenches. This can be effective in certain terrains and for limited periods of time, but a trench must be quite wide and deep in order to prevent an elephant from crossing. Such trenches are expensive to dig in the first place, and are expensive to maintain since erosion and other natural forces tend to fill in any man-made trenches. As erosion takes place, an elephant may be encouraged to attempt a crossing that may in fact be dangerous, possibly resulting in injury to the elephant. In any event, as the trench fills the elephants will eventually be able to cross if proper maintenance is not performed. Trenches are thus at best a partial solution in certain areas for the prevention of elephant ingress into a human populated area.
While it is possible to construct heavily reinforced, electrified fencing that will restrain elephants, the employment of such fencing over a significant expanse is not practical due to the high cost of such fencing. Solar-powered fences are increasingly being used and, like trenches, are effective in certain regions. But also like trenches, solar-powered fences require constant maintenance. In addition, elephants are capable of detecting regions of weaker voltage in electrified fencing, thus reducing the effectiveness of such fencing if a constant voltage cannot be maintained.
While heretofore no known mechanical methods have been employed to prevent elephant ingress into an area, there are numerous mechanical devices that have been constructed to stop the movement of smaller animals, usually domesticated animals such as cattle, horses, and swine. In particular, many types of so-called “cattle guards” have been in use since the 1800's throughout the world. The purpose of a cattle guard is to prevent animals from stepping through openings in fences, such as where a railroad line or roadway passes through the fence. The cattle guard is permanently placed in the opening, usually over a trench or other opening in the ground. The use of a cattle guard eliminates the requirement of placing a gate to block the passage. Gates are costly, and may be impractical in some situations, such as when the cattle guard is used at a railroad line passage. Since the movement of cattle is easily blocked by a relatively simple and cheap barbed-wire fence, cattle guard devices are only used in those locations (such as roadways and railroad lines) where fencing cannot be placed.
The typical cattle guard is simply a slatted walkway placed over a shallow trench. The slats are spaced such that a cow will be reluctant to tread on the device for fear of a foot passing through one of the spaces
Rasmussen Lois Elizabeth Little
Riddle Scott W.
Carone Michael J.
Dougherty J. Charles
Riddle Scott W.
Shaw Elizabeth
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