Protecting goats in Slovenian Alps with high electric fence

We have successfully set a night enclosure of
high electric fence on the mountain pasture »Božca« near mountain “Kobariški stol”
in the Slovenian Alps. In the past months there have been several wolf attacks
on livestock here and on the neighboring mountain pastures, so the local damage
inspector gave the initiative to build a night enclosure for the “Drežnica”
goats, a special breed of Slovenian goats, found only in this region.

The shepherd will gather the goats inside the
enclosure every night till the end of the grazing season. The area surrounding
the enclosure will also be monitored with automatic cameras, helping us to
detect wolf presence around the pasture. Representatives from Agriculture-Forestry
Institute Nova Gorica joined the Slovenia Forest Service employees when setting
up of the enclosure and were educated about appropriate means of protecting
livestock in alpine areas.

Traditional mountain grazing in the Alps helps
to preserve the diversity of high-altitude mountain meadows and with this an
important part of Slovenian tradition and environment. Large carnivores are
slowly returning back to the Alpine region and with them also the issues of
human-large carnivore coexistence. It is up to us to find appropriate solutions
for these areas and enable coexistence of large carnivores and livestock herding
in the Alps.

You can learn more about large carnivore damage prevention on https://www.varna-pasa.si/en/.