ANIMAL DETERRING DEVICE "UOZ-1"
DESIGNED FOR HIGH-SPEED RAILWAY TRACKS
The
wild animals do not regard trains on the railway tracks as their natural
enemies; they get used to the noise produced by these machines and accept
them as part of their own habitat. Furthermore, the speeds that are developed
today by trains, frequently around 160-200 km per hour, exceed the speeds
that these animals have become familiar with during their natural existence
in forests, on fields or meadows. The time to react, to escape is too short
for an animal to give it a chance to survive such an encounter with a train.
Making use of our many years of experience in construction of microprocessor
devices for the Polish State Railways and of the numerous consultations
and cooperation with ecologists, scientists and experts in the field of
wild animal behaviour, NEEL Ltd., along with specialists
from other companies, has developed a state-of-the-art solution to the problem.
Today this unique worldwide animal deterring device under the product
name UOZ-1 is manufactured by NEEL Ltd. - a Warsaw-based production
company.
These devices are designed to prevent such game as the roe-deer,
the red-deer, the elk, the bison, the wild boar or the fox from migrating
through railway tracks directly at the time of a passing train at the speed
V=160km/h. This system limits to the minimum the loss in the wild
animal population caused by collisions with fast moving trains and yet allows
these animals to pass across the tracks when there is no danger of such
collisions.
These
devices operate through sound signals, which deter animals from coming near
the tracks. The signals are emitted by the UOZ-1
device for a certain time, directly before a train approaches the site.
The animals perceive the sounds as a real warning and react as they do when
coming across a natural predator or another danger that they are genetically
programmed to avoid.
The real sounds that exist in nature make up the so-called 'key stimuli
proxy', which consists of the highest priority stimuli known to arouse fear
in animals. Other common solutions, widely used in Western European countries
on tracks of high or highest velocity railways, are high wire fences or
sub- and on-ground constructions like tunnels or overpasses. In
comparison, our device has many merits. Firstly, the animals are virtually
free to cross the tracks that lie within their feeding and mating grounds.
Secondly, the investment to be made is significantly lower.
UOZ-1 devices are installed on a concrete foundation in the usual places
where animals cross the railway. UOZ-1 are placed in line with the electric
traction poles, each one on the alternate side of the railway tracks. The
device is of cylinder shape (110 cm high and approx. 30 cm wide in diameter).
The grey casing is made of epoxide and glass composites.
UOZ-1 devices have been installed and are operational along the E-20 railway
track between Mińsk Mazowiecki and Siedlce on the heavily frequented Warsaw-Terespol
route.
Research conducted by Forestry Research Institute in Warsaw proved that
phytophagous (as the roe-deer, the red-deer, the wild boar and the hare),
predators (as the fox) and birds (as the clout) react properly for the key
stimuli. With UOZ-1 in place the animals don't avoid the
railway tracks entirely but appear there less frequently or hardly ever.
ANIMAL DETERRING DEVICE UOZ-1
- online movie (Low Quality - 6 MB)
ANIMAL
DETERRING DEVICE UOZ-1
- download movie (High Quality, .avi 32 MB)
Copyright "Railway protects life and health of animals" PKP
Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A.
ANIMAL
DETERRING DEVICE "UOZ-1"
- handbill .pdf (2,5 MB)
