
Drawing Eyes on Cow Butts May Ward Off Hungry Lions - ourmandave
http://gizmodo.com/drawing-eyes-on-cow-butts-may-ward-off-hungry-lions-1783744270
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asciimo
> The African lion is a vulnerable species, with numbers dropping from over
> 100,000 in the 1990s to between 23,000 and 39,000 today, according to the
> Botswana Predator Conservation Trust (BPCT). Much of that decline is due to
> these kinds of retaliation killings because farmers have no non-lethal
> strategies for protecting their herds.

The root of the problem is animal agriculture. We see similar dynamics in the
United States, where wolves, coyotes, and even wild horses are culled to
protect cattle.

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-
science/gover...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-
science/governments-kill-of-4-million-animals-seen-as-
anoverstep/2014/06/06/1de0c550-ecc4-11e3-b98c-72cef4a00499_story.html)

[https://www.thedodo.com/why-is-the-government-killing-the-
la...](https://www.thedodo.com/why-is-the-government-killing-the-last-of-
americas-iconic-wild-horses-1508214057.html)

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superuser2
>farmers have no non-lethal strategies for protecting their herds

I assume there's a good reason, but why not fences? Isn't chain-link fence
really cheap?

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aaron695
\- Chainlink fence cheap

No, not cheap even by western standards.

Probably cost swaps labour for material when going from rich to poor. But not
cheap.

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carbocation
> stamping eyes on one-third of a herd of 62 cattle. When the cattle returned
> each night, they took a head count to see how many had survived. Only three
> cows were killed by lions during this period—all without the painted eyes on
> their rumps. And all the painted cows survived.

This is really cool work! And fantastic that they are using a rigorous
approach to study this.

Getting more data will be important. I calculate a P value of 0.23, giving a
pretty big possibility that they're finding results this extreme (0% of cattle
lost from the eye group vs 7% of cattle lost from the no eye group) by chance.

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sa1
Similar tricks have been tried it with tigers:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_attacks_in_the_Sundarban...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_attacks_in_the_Sundarbans#Precautions)
Apparently tigers figure it out fast enough.

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danidiaz
If fake eyes on butts are so useful, why didn't they evolve by themselves?

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steve19
Humans bred cows, they did not evolve.

Nature's cows (buffalo etc.) live in very, very large herds for protection.

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maxerickson
Pedantic: cattle (cows be females).

The aurochs didn't really live in large herds. It was just huge and cranky,
and had big horns.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurochs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurochs)

~~~
thaumasiotes
It's always nice, if you're going to go around saying "pedantic:", to have
what you say afterward be correct.

[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cow](http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/cow)

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happyslobro
I wonder how this will affect the cattle's mating. Cattle don't do missionary;
I wouldn't be surprised if eye contact totally kills the mood for a bull.

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tamana
There would be no eye contact when the bull has mounted.

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happyslobro
But would he even try to mount while he can see "eyes"? Or, would he try to
manoeuvre around to the other side, after a little misguided foreplay?

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themartorana
I love when making situations better involves almost ridiculously simple - but
"outside the box" \- solutions. Not every problem has a technology-based
solution. This made me smile wide :)

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randallsquared
Maybe not every problem has a technology-based solution, but apparently this
one did. :)

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teh_klev
This is the fundraiser from earlier this year:

[https://experiment.com/projects/i-cows-can-intimidating-
eye-...](https://experiment.com/projects/i-cows-can-intimidating-eye-patterns-
painted-onto-cows-reduce-lion-attacks)

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microcolonel
If all the cows have eyes on their butts, won't the lions just get more hungry
and then eat them anyway?

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steve19
I suspect they would eventually figure out that's eyes on cows are harmless.
Painting the cows with camo pattern would probably also make the Lions
nervous, for a while at least.

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andrewclunn
Okay, now try it with angry eyes.

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HillaryBriss
sometimes evolution isn't fast enough

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santaclaus
Does it work on people butts too?

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mc32
Well, apparently, with respect to another big cat, tigers, on the backs of
their heads, it does, or people believe, over in the sunderbans[1]. Same idea.
See fifth image of the lot.

[1][http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-
india-26064591](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-26064591)

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StavrosK
> The inspiration for the iCow strategy came while Jordan was based in a
> village in Botswana, when two lionesses were killed by local farmers in
> retaliation for preying on their cattle herds.

Letting lions starve to death is the only way to save them from angry
peasants!

