FOXSYLVANIA

– – Smells like teen spirit?–No, it might smell like tiger poo, at least if you want to use an odor to repel pests…

A team from the University of Queensland made the discovery as they researched non-lethal ways to keep herbivores such as goats and kangaroos away from certain plants.  Now animal repellents are typically based on other offensive smells such as rotten eggs, blood, or bone.  Using tiger feces as a repellent came from the logical notion that if you could smell a predator nearby, you’d probably want to go elsewhere!  Tiger poo was found to be a more effective repellent than the feces of other predators, and it was found to be especially effective if the tiger feces collected were from a tiger who had been fed the animal being targeted.

An offended tiger offered the comment, “Hey, whadya expect?–It don’t smell like roses!“

Researchers also found that old goat carcasses also proved effective in warding away goats, but the smell was so bad that it made the scientists feel sick…

…and you thought that you had a bad job!

This entry was posted on March 12, 2011 at 2:17 am and is filed under animal behavior, animals, research, science. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: animal repellents, tiger poo