Painting eyes on cows' bums can save their lives, a study finds

It might sound like a prank but scientists have found that painting large eyes on the backsides of cows can help protect them from lions and other predators.

Researchers worked with farmers in Botswana, Africa, who painted cattle in 14 herds suffering from regular lion attacks.

The scientists painted one-third of each herd with an eye design on the cows' bottoms, one-third with simple cross marks, and the rest of the cows were left without any markings.

They found that cattle painted with fake eyes were significantly more likely to survive than unpainted or cross-painted control cattle within the same herd during the four-year study.

Previously, the farmers let their cows roam and graze during the day, but that was leaving them at the mercy of attacks by lions, leopards and other carnivores.

And when a farmer loses a cow, the village will often hunt down and shoot the big cat, which is one of the reasons lion populations in Africa have dropped in the last few decades.

Painting eyes on the cows' rear ends could offer a more humane alternative to shooting the predators in the future - protecting both the cows and the big cats.

"Lions are ambush predators that rely on stalking, and therefore the element of surprise, so being seen by their prey can lead to them abandoning the hunt," said Neil Jordan from the University of New South Wales in Australia, who was one of the study's leaders.

Animals including butterflies, fish and birds have been known to have fake eye designs on their bodies to help them confuse and ward off other predators in the wild.

But no mammals - like cows - naturally produce these kinds of eye designs on their bodies to help them survive against other creatures.

"To our knowledge, our research is the first time eyespots have been shown to deter large mammalian predators," study co-author Cameron Radford said.

"We think this may suggest the presence of an inherent response to eyes that could be exploited to modify behaviour in practical situations - such as to prevent human-wildlife conflicts and reduce criminal activity in humans."

The study by University of New South Wales Sydney, Taronga Conservation Society Australia, and Botswana Predator Conservation was published in the journal Communications Biology.