Maun researchers scoop P1.4m for scent-based predator control project

Mbongeni Mguni | Wednesday May 21, 2025 13:55

In the country’s north-west, farmers and their livestock have fought a perennial war for survival against carnivorous predators, which all sides have been losing. Lives have been lost on both sides with farmers perennially counting the cost of losses, while key species such as the critically endangered African wild dog, have declined in population to a few handfuls of thousands.

Numerous interventions have had limited success. The electric fence barriers that are viewed as the most effective, are prone to damage and require high maintenance, besides being an expensive alternative for the expansive and remote wilderness where conflicts between farmers and predators occur.

Maun-based Wild Entrust BioBoundary Project, established in 2008, is on the global cutting-edge of scientific research into using the scents produced by predators to deter their encroachment into livestock and human areas.

At its heart is the science of semiochemistry, or the study of chemical signals produced by organisms to communicate with other individuals, either of the same or different species.

“All terrestrial carnivores use scent-marks to label their home ranges and communicate with their neighbours,” researchers said in a note shared with Mmegi. “The details differ between species, but in general this communication by scent underpins mutual avoidance and mediates the use of shared areas. “Bioboundaries replicate the “keep out” messages of home range scent-marking, deterring individuals of the target species from crossing the bioboundary into areas where they are vulnerable to lethal conflict with humans. “The artificial chemical signals of a bioboundary are synthetic equivalents of the active components of natural scent-marks. “Bioboundaries are a breakthrough in conservation practice, applicable to human-predator conflicts all over the world.”

Once developed, semiochemical tools are low-tech, low-cost, and quick and easy to apply, and synergise with all other mitigations. Unlike fences, lethal control, and other mitigations, they have no non-target impacts, researchers say.

“Bioboundaries are a truly innovative advance towards mitigating the conflict between free-ranging carnivores and people and their livestock. “Farmers will kill fewer predators when attacks on livestock are reduced, and with conflict killings reduced, livestock areas will provide extensive predator habitat, and connectivity between core populations of predators in protected wildlife areas.”

The researchers involved in Wild Entrust’s BioBoundary Project initially began their work with a focus on the African wild dog, a species so endangered that less than 7,000 of them are left on the continent.

According to researchers, wherever African wild dogs occur, humans are their biggest or second biggest cause of death. Core populations bleed out into surrounding livestock areas, where they are killed for attacking livestock, snared by bushmeat poachers, or killed on roads. This continual attrition leaves the core populations vulnerable to localised extinctions.

With funding from key donors such as the Paul G Allen Family Foundation, founded by the American tech billionaire, the local BioBoundary Project was able to establish a laboratory in Maun and extend research into two livestock ranch areas as well as a subsistence livestock area in Botswana.

After strategically deploying the repellents developed in the lab, researchers monitored the results on an extensive network of camera traps, eventually developing 3,720 videos of 15 carnivore species over the years.

“We now know more about the chemistry and behaviour of African wild dog scent-marking than anyone else knows about any wild species, and our intensive camera trapping has yielded more data on African wild dog scent-marking than is available for all the rest of the world’s carnivores put together,” said Dr Peter Apps, Senior Researcher of the BioBoundary Project.

Apps runs the semiochemistry laboratory and has a doctorate in Zoology as well as 40 years’ experience in gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, of which 25 years have been specifically in mammal semiochemistry.

The local project has recorded success in its efforts to use the scent-based deterrent methods over the years.

At present, the BioBoundary project does not address the country’s most pressing human wildlife conflict – that of elephants versus farmers and their crops. As reported recently by Mmegi, a years-long effort by other researchers as well as government to use an artificial scent-based intervention, namely chilli pepper smoke, to drive away elephants, had failed as the animals proved remarkably intelligent at adapting their behaviour.

However, with predators, the semiochemistry is proving the perfect solution.



From the African wild dog, BioBoundary Project studies have expanded successfully to other predators such as leopards, honey badgers, black-backed jackals, Cape foxes, bat-eared foxes, caracals and spotted hyaenas. BioBoundary Project researchers say anything that repels leopards, spotted hyaenas, caracals or jackals “obviously has huge potential for protecting livestock, and protecting predators from lethal control”.

“Releasing BioBoundary deterrent at a livestock kraal on a cattle ranch in Botswana, reduced visits by leopards from seven to zero, and visits by spotted hyaenas from seven to one over a period of four months,” Apps said. “In Botswana, the BioBoundary leopard deterrent deployed on the kraal fence reduced losses of kraaled calves to leopards by between 60 and 70%.”

Additionally, in Zimbabwe, the leopard deterrent stopped a leopard from breaking into a kraal and killing calves. Deterrents stopped spotted hyaenas from using a gap through the buffalo fence.

“Deterrent released from collars worn by about one in three of the goats or sheep in flocks have protected the whole flock immediately and completely. “That protection has lasted for 10 months on one of the livestock ranches. “No other non-lethal measure is as effective. “Deterrent collars have also protected calves from leopards,” Apps told Mmegi.

Apps explained that the value of the kraaled calves saved by BioBoundary deterrents was about six times the cost of the deterrent. Deterrent collars that cost about P400 for 10, saved weaner goats worth P16,000.

“The BioBoundary is still at the research and development stage, and the deterrents and dispensers are not commercially available. “We hope that soon we can secure business partnerships to deal with production, distribution and sales,” he said.

The project’s efforts have not gone without notice. Aside from the support of donors over the years, the local BioBoundary Project recently scooped a $100,000 (P1.35m) grant in recognition of Innovation in Human-Wildlife Conflict mitigation. The grant was awarded by Wilderness Trust.

Selected from over 140 global submissions, the BioBoundary Project's scent-based deterrent technology was chosen because it “provides a safe, cost-effective, and scalable solution to protect livestock and reduce conflicts with endangered predators”.

According to Wilderness, the BioBoundary Project was selected for its ingenuity, cost-effectiveness, and high potential for immediate real-world impact.

“This solution is practical and easy to implement in areas where human-wildlife conflict is prevalent,” said Wilderness Trust board member and judge, Olivia Mufute, a seasoned wildlife ecologist with over 25 years of experience in conservation. “Whether in communal lands, private reserves, or buffer zones around national parks, it offers a powerful, non-lethal alternative to protecting livestock and reducing retaliatory killings.”

Fellow judge and board member Basilia Shivute, who leads a community-based NGO in Namibia’s Kunene Region, added: “From a community perspective, I can see how this system could make a real difference. It’s simple, effective, and replicable across various landscapes – whether in Namibia, Zimbabwe, or beyond. It’s exactly the kind of innovation we hoped to uncover through this Challenge”.

Apps said the grant would allow the project to double the number of researchers in the team, a step towards having a critical mass of personnel with complementary skills.

“The publicity that this award generates will also attract attention from other potential funders who recognise the need for innovation, and from potential investors in the business sector, who will do a much better job at rolling out the deterrents at a large scale,” he said.

Still, the project is always on the lookout for funding to keep its efforts going.

“Hard cash is always useful but donations in kind can have a value far beyond their cost,” Apps said. “For example, an engineering works that could help with the final touches to the design of boxes for camera traps, and produce then in batches of a few dozen.”

For farmers, their livestock and the predators trapped in an eternal battle for survival in the northwest, help appears to have arrived.