Hello! We are a group of students at UC Berkeley working to design a lion deterrence system that is more affordable and cost-effective for community livestock protection and human-wildlife coexistence in rural Zimbabwe. The main solutions we are considering are the use of artificial eye spots to trick lions and solar-powered LED lights. We are hoping to connect with anyone in this field who can give us any advice or suggestions.
1 March 2024 1:22am
maybe not very helpful and techy stuff, but indeed interesting to prevent livestock predation if you haven't seen one
1 March 2024 3:46pm
Hi Rokshana,
I haven't dealt with lions specifically but we have solutions that work for mountain lions and bears.
One example:
https://youtu.be/ynynSmnHvS8?si=3D4g7hu6LifO_iQh
Some others are pyrotechnics or powderballs for active deterants.
We have also had people use our Squawk box to play random human noises.
Happy to answer any questions.
![](https://wildlabs.net/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/picture-2894-1499686704-2894.jpg?itok=jDPoLG5n)
Rob Appleby
Wild Spy
8 March 2024 2:52pm
Hi @rokshanabushra
So are you looking to replicate something like this?
https://predatorguard.com/products/predator-deterrent-light
This is, in principle at least, fairly simple, as it's really just some red LEDs and a small solar-battery power system. You could buy one of the commercial options and do a teardown (or I can do it if you like, as I'd be interested to find out exactly what they are doing).
In lieu of that, I suspect a light-dependent resistor is probably used to control the lights coming on at night (i.e. something along these lines: https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Make-LDR-Darkness-Sensor-Circuit-Simple-DIY/).
If you employ some sort of 'blink' or flashing protocol (you could use a 555 timer to keep the costs down), you could save quite a bit of power (compared to running the lights constantly). For example, something along these lines: https://www.instructables.com/Adjustable-SingleDual-LED-Flasher-Using-555-Timer-/ You could also add a PIR motion sensor so it only comes on when nearby motion is detected, but of course the costs of building goes up.
There are also a few off-the-shelf flasher designs that might be cheap enough already to consider (e.g. https://www.ledsales.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=142_143&products_id=2820). This seems like a reasonably good option for low power, although I have no idea how well it actually works...You can also buy LEDs that flash by themselves (e.g. https://www.ledsales.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=148_152_159&products_id=2951).
If you think sounds might also help (e.g. human noises etc.), check out the Boombox from Freaklabs: https://freaklabs.org/technology/boombox/ and it should be possible to add 'eyes' in the form of reflectors, or, some kind of LEDs that activate at the same time as the sound. You could contact Akiba or Jacinta about it as I am sure they'd help if they can: https://freaklabs.org/about/#:~:text=providers%20including%20ARGOS.-,the%20team,-Chris%20%E2%80%98Akiba%E2%80%99%20Wang
Anyway, happy to help if I can and all the best for the project.
Cheers,
Rob
8 March 2024 4:11pm
Hi Rokshana,
Maybe you can try this product from India called ANIDERS -
I think this product would help you a lot. This is their website -
ANIDERS - Animal Intrusion Detection and Repellent System | Kyari for Wildlife
Searching for an animal repellent solution? We at Kyari have come up with a mechanised scarecrow that can prevent crop raiding and increase crop yield. It is effective on Elephants, Wild Boar, Blue Bull (Nilgai) and Deer.
![](/sites/default/files/embeds/9c28a00889179155f9bb4d4cf32323bc.png)
Herdhanu Jayanto
KONKLUSI (Kolaborasi Inklusi Konservasi - Yayasan)