Two days ago we upgraded the electric fence to a cable with six cores and therefore lower resistance, higher energy shock. We also made it a single wire five strand fence with a smaller gap between strands. All the holes in the other fence are blocked and will be changed from temporary to fixed in due course.
The night before last we had a younger coypu get shocked and run. The witness sticks by the pond were untouched suggesting no ingress.
Last night popa-coypu came and decided not to try to cross the fence…
Yesterday afternoon I blocked the hole in the fence with a small log.
Around 9 PM CET moma coypu and the coypu twins arrived. Their ingress was thwarted.
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They hung around for ~ 50 minutes trying to force their way into the precinct. Check out the teeth on this little bugger!
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After some 50 or so captured videos of them trying to get in moma coypu and one of the twins went uphill, to the left, away from the pond in search of another way in. They found the next hole in the fence which had witness sticks and they came in. You can see that they have drained the battery in the trail cam.
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It is possible that the hunters from the commune will swing by this afternoon.
We have repaired the old and strimmer damaged fence with 20 odd metres of new fencing with a rectangular 5 by 10 cm hole. There is no evidence of ingress. However just uphill from the repair I found a new hole yesterday.
Here is the second on two younger coypu entering, last night.
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A little later moma coypu came in she had a tight squeeze. She did not let out a groan like someone trying on tight jeans.
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They did not leave by this hole. My guess is that they headed at speed, through the electric fence, to plop into the river near dawn.
This hole is easy enough to block, the temptation is to put a trap or snare here.
It is very important that the lotus grows out of the mud, the mire, and strecthes its radiant head above water to soak in the solar bounty.
Here is the Heron recorded after dawn. In the pond you can see the proto-lotuses starting to form. They are to the top middle of the video.
Turn the sound up to hear the birdsong….
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We finished reinforcing the wire fence yesterday. But, here is Moma Coypu coming from the left up from the river. She disturbs the witness sticks…
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She is joined by junior coypu, who heads off in the direction of the lotuses for supper…
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After dining junior comes back to Moma and she grooms the little bastard.
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About and hour or so before dawn Moma heads back in the general direction of the river.
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If you listen carefully you can hear an owl.
Somehow they are getting though the electric fence. I’ll put the camera out to observe and will probbaly make a five strander. The toad migration has started and unfortunatley we electrocuted a female toad the other night. I need to make sure there is good clearence at the bottom…
Yesterday I made a temporoary repair to a new hole in the fence. Which you can see in the footage below.
The coypu twins arrived at 3:30 AM and were at the fence until 5:45 AM. I have forty 15 second clips of them chewing and digging.
Look at the size of the teeth on this little bugger.
The three strand electric fence has been disturbed and the witness sticks away from the fence near this corner have been moved.
My guess is they gave up on the wire fence and risked the electrice fence as dawn approached. Having been shocked they went in the pond away from the electricity.
I’ll probably put a fourth strand in the electric fence this afternoon.
The local farm store sells a battery operated electrificator which has 2.8 Joule pulses at ten thousand volts. That is more than a factor of ten higher…
Might be worth a hundred euros…
I have ordered some more fencing to repair where there are other holes.
Here is some footage of the younger of two herons which visit.
I managed to exclude big-daddy coypu. These little buggers managed to find a hole in the fence which I thought was too small. There is camera evidence that they were here from ~2 AM till dawn.
I extended a single strand electric fence over the most recently chewed hole and plugged in the HV.
I went out to inspect this morning…
The wire had been moved upwards and the support posts twisted consistent with an ingress attempt. The witness sticks around the pond had been moved so I assumed success.
Around 9pm CET time there is a movement to the left consistent with a shocked Coypu running off.
Around 4AM the camera is triggered but no Coypu recorded. You can see the wire twisted up. The blighter came back. It is probably hungry as the river is in flood so no access to bank and river bed food.
Just before dawn getting a hurry up shock on the way out.
It looks as though he is learning to take the risk for the reward.
I guess a shock to the nose is worse than to the back.
I will put two strands across the hole later today.
Big Daddy Coypu chewing the fence and making ingress yesterday evening…
This looks to be sound evidence. He was back again just before 4AM. I think he “plops” into the river, floats downstream and then returns to his rounds. He has made several holes. To the right you can see small logs blocking his previous forays.
Time for boiling oil from the parapets or greased lightning.
It has been raining for a long time and the level of Le Jaudy is elevated. Turn up the sound to get an idea of how even a small river is a force of nature.
Le Jaudy in flood 08-01-2024.
This means that I have turned off the electric fence. If the level rises much more it will get shorted.
It also means that we have a deer trapped at the end of the garden by the river on one side and the fence on others. It was trying to high jump without success. I have come indoors so as to reduce its anxiety levels. Maybe with a calmer head it will figure it out…
Over the last few days, the river has been in flood and flowing very quickly. Previously we have had no Coypu visits when it has been like that. So, I put the trail cam outside my office to confirm the re-appearance of the new hefty tom cat. Sure enough, he visited and sniffed the pissing tree during the night. He is probably not feral as he looks very well fed.
This morning, I inspected the electric fence in the corner of the property. The fence had been interfered with and some of the wires had slipped their guides.
Here is what a big Coypu does when it gets shocked {from February last year}. Turn up the volume. You can see an earthing spark in the infrared images.
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As you can see the Coypu jumps, grunts and disturbs the fence. I am reasonably sure that something got shocked last night. BUT the witness sticks at two point of ingress into the pond were untouched.
So, I have repositioned the camera for tonight and placed witness sticks at all the points of entry into the pond.
Perhaps we have deterrence, perhaps not.
Maybe I can put some antipigeon spikes on the wall to the right in the video above, down by the river… if the blighters are accepting the shock for a nice midnight snack….
Dreamyoga 