Thursday, October 6, 2016

Eyes on the Rear

This is one of those 'crazy enough it just might work' ideas that researchers borrowed from nature to protect cows in several African countries from lions. The idea is painting eyes on the rear end of the cows because the lions are stealth / ambush hunters and usually will turn away once their prey look at them. It would be great if it works as lion populations are between 23,000 and 39,000 placing them on the vulnerable species list. Did you guess a but (butt!) was coming? What I wonder is even if it does work to deter the lions won't they eventually figure it out? Plus they have to eat and a lot of their natural prey are also endangered so that leaves them ready to take risks in order to feed. As with most endangered animals it is primarily due to habitat loss and I don't see that being reversed anytime soon.
eyes-on-cow-rumps
They don't look much like eyes to me.
eyes-on-cow-rumps2
Image result for picture of cows in kenya with eyes painting

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