"Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play," goes the venerable Western folk song "Home on the Range."
Fences strung throughout the western United States to corral cattle and other livestock, however, block buffalo from roaming and restrict the play of deer and antelope. The deployment of virtual fencing may free wildlife to prance unfettered by barbed wire across the vast landscapes of the American West. Ranchers will also benefit from this cheaper and more flexible tool for managing the grazing of their herds.
How does virtual fencing work? "Animals (primarily cattle) wear GPS-enabled collars that emit sound, vibrations, and mild electric pulses to guide their movement to encourage them to stay within—or deter them from entering—designated areas," explains a November 2024 policy brief from the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Montana. Virtual fencing software and collars communicate through cell networks, base stations, or satellites.
