I once asked a professor of agriculture in the southwestern United States what sort of fence would keep a goat from escaping.
"Well," he replied, taking a long and pensive draw on his cigarette. "If it can keep out air and keep out water, it can keep in a goat."
Those wise words came to mind early one recent Sunday morning as I stood near a steep, wooded ravine a few hundred meters from my house in rural Nagano Prefecture. Across the head of the ravine, which cuts down from the forest through farmland below, stands a two-meter-high wire fence topped with four rows of electrified wire intended to keep undesirable wildlife out of the village.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.