Wacky tube men could keep dingoes away from livestock in Australia

Wacky tube men could keep dingoes away from livestock in Australia

4 years ago
Anonymous $RGO3jP_V_c

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/wacky-tube-men-could-keep-dingoes-away-livestock-australia

Inflatable tube men—those wacky, wriggling figures that tower near car dealerships and mattress stores—are typically designed to grab attention. But scientists in Australia have used them for the opposite purpose: to scare away unwanted onlookers. A new study suggests the unpredictable movements of these dancing eyesores could keep wild dingoes from killing livestock.

“It’s exciting … to see real [alternatives] to lethal management of dingoes,” says Colleen St. Clair, a conservation biologist of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, who was not involved in the study. The approach, she says, might not just save farm animals—but the dingoes themselves.