Fake Eyes On Cow Butts Are Saving The Lives Of Cows AND Their Predators
These cows had dumps like a truck, truck, truck, eyes like what, what, what.
Despite—or perhaps because of—the fact that lions are at the top of the food chain, the population is on the decline. Every day, lions are killed in retaliation for killing livestock. Because lions are ambush predators, they tend to stalk their prey and will abandon a hunt if the prey spots them. One solution to help prevent lions from killing livestock and farmers from killing lions? Draw eyes on cow butts, of course!
The idea of adding eyes to cow butts is grounded in patterns already found in nature, such as the eye-patterns on insects that deter birds.
While lions killing livestock obviously isn't an issue in the United States, due to our lack of a wild lion population, it is a serious problem in African countries like Botswana. That's where the kooky but necessary experiment is happening.
Neil R. Jordan, the head of the project, is a large carnivore conservation biologist who is working alongside the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust, where he's been a Research Associate for five years. He came up with the idea for the so-called "i-cow" or "scary-ass cows" experiment after two lionesses were killed in a village he was living in at the time.
Drawing realistic-looking eyes on the butts of cows is an easy way to prevent lions from attacking.
In a three-month pilot study in 2015, three of the 39 unpainted cows were killed by lions, while none of the 23 who got the fake peepers suffered attacks.
Jordan and his crew are now looking to expand the experiment.
For the next phase, Jordan would like to paint half a herd of cows (about 30) while the other half remain eye-less. Jordan also plans on tracking one of the lions in the area to see how it interacts with the cows. You can help getting those eyes drawn by donating to the project on the team's experiment page, a crowdfunding site similar to Kickstarter.
I think it's pretty obvious that even if the eyes don't do anything to cut down on lion attacks, all cows should have eyes on their butts.
Look how adorable they are! Seriously, all cows should get butt eyes, even the cows who don't live in areas where there are lions!