In many parts of Africa where large predators and livestock live in close proximity, retaliatory killing of Lions and other large carnivores by local people who lose livestock to predation is a key threat to the survival of these carnivores. Taronga, the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of New South Wales and the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust are working together to reduce this human-wildlife conflict through the i-Cow project, where eye patterns are painted on cattle to assess their effectiveness to deter attacks by Lions and Leopards.
 
The idea is to persuade these big cats that they have been seen by their prey; a red flag for ambush predators. This low-cost potential solution is designed to benefit both farmers and predators by reducing livestock losses and retaliatory killing of predators. Taronga's continued support will facilitate the next phase of the project: producing "how to" guides in three key languages to increase uptake in key human-wildlife conflict hot-spots across Africa.