Banff Park hopes to save more animals with $26M boost to highway fence

A decades-old fencethat has failed to keep somewildlife off the highway near Banff will get a $26 million upgrade startingthis summer to make it tougher for critters to climb over or crawl under.

Park officials say thenew fence will help prevent accidents such as one involvinga black bear that was killed in June when it hopped the structure.

Bill Hunt with Parks Canada says the new fence has reinforcements that weren't considered when the original was built more than 25 years ago.

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It looks similar to the untrained eye, butthe fence is now looser at the top, so it's not stiff enough for bears to climb.

And it goes deeper into the ground.

"It's to prevent grizzly bears, black bears and wolves from digging under the fence," Hunt said.

"In the earlier older section of fence we didn't have that available and we found that animals were able to dig their way under the fence."

Tyler McClure is a spokesperson for WildSmart, a program that specializes in human-wildlife interactions.

He says animals have adapted to the fenceand as humans we have to try to stay a step ahead.

"Animals don't always do what we expect them to. Quite often we'll put up things like fences or walls to keep them away and we'll learn the creative ways they can react to those new structures," McClure said.

All the fencing between Canmore and the Sunshine Interchange will be replaced over the next two years. It will cost $26 million.

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