Live wire power poles present obvious danger to wildlife, but emergency response plans for such events unfortunately seem to be inadequate.
The following screenshot image (Figure 1) shows a black bear that actually managed to climb to the top of a power utility pole. The location was along Route 56 in New Mexico. While the bear was alive at the moment this image was captured, it was later electrocuted by the power lines, which reportedly carried 7200 volts.
Figure 1 Trapped bear unfortunately ends up electrocuted and deceased.
There have been several stories about this event. A link to one of them can be found here.
The danger that live wire power poles can present to wildlife, to birds in particular, has been addressed before. Please see here.
Quite frankly, I never expected that such an animal could get itself into trouble like that, yet I recently watched a PBS nature program where a black bear was seen effortlessly climbing a tree while hunting prey.
There are stories online of similar prior incidents having taken place. Here, it was speculated that since the event happened adjacent to a roadway, the bear might have been spooked by a passing vehicle and sought refuge by climbing that pole.
Emergency response plans for such events seem to be inadequate. Since they are already known to occur, however regularly or sporadically, I would have expected proper emergency response plans to have long ago been put in place, to turn electric power off and to then safely rescue the endangered animal(s). Instead, I see very little sign of emergency preparedness.
The emergency response operator in this case gave a verbal recitation along the line of “there’s nothing they can do.” There’s nothing that bear can do either, at least not anymore.
John Dunn is an electronics consultant and a graduate of The Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (BSEE) and of New York University (MSEE).
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