How do I keep animals away from my survey lines?

Short Answer: Keep your survey line and equipment supervised, especially if you're using salt water near your electrodes. You can also use natural/humane deterrents.

What attracts animals to survey lines?

• Cable/Wire Jackets: Animals like to chew on the plastic cable jackets.
• Salt Water: If you're using salt water in order to improve contact resistance, the salt may attract animals that have an affinity for salt licks.
• Natural Curiosity & Lack of Human Presence: If your survey is unsupervised or lacks any human presence (for example, if you leave a survey to run overnight), it may attract curious animals.  

How to keep animals away from your survey:

• Use sprays such as Red Hot Spray or Bitter Yuck around the perimeter of your survey. These sprays have flavors and smells that are not appealing to animals.
• You can also sprinkle chili peppers and chili seeds around the perimeter of your survey. There are very few mammals besides humans that can tolerate spicy food.