Pinedale Biologists Have Success with Sage-Grouse Decoys
I came across an article today about biologists using decoys to lure mating sage grouse away from their old lekking grounds because of oil and gas development. The biologists combined their papier mache decoys with sage grouse mating sounds to draw the birds towards new lekking locations. The birds ended up using four of the five alternative lek locations. I really enjoyed this article because it was a good example of resourceful biology. Not all solutions have to be expensive. If you ever need a cheap, creative solution, ask a biologist! Another aspect that I liked was the community outreach component involved. The biologists had partnered with local eighth-graders to make the papier mache sage grouses, and the students won an award at the state science fair.
Decoys are also used by humans in several other situations, the most common being hunting-related. Hunters frequently use decoy deer to lure in other deer or bucks during strategic times of the year. I am not a huge hunting fan, so I found the alternative decoy use more interesting: catching poachers/illegal hunters. These undercover robot animals are helping in the hunt for poachers. This Washington Post article includes a video and a fun little robot vs. real quiz at the end. Wildlife officials use robotic animals (e.g. deer, elk, foxes, turkeys, bears) to aid in catching hunters that hunt in illegal areas or seasons. Robotic deer can cost about $2,000 each but can potentially bring in $30,000 from fines issued to poachers. If you are interested in seeing how these deceptive deer are created, check out this video: How It’s Made Robotic Hunting Decoys. It is quite fascinating to see the work that goes into it. I think my favorite part was the foam filling up the cast. I am constantly surprised at the cool materials available to people these days.
If you want to see decoys at work in the marine-biology world, check out this video of a great white shark decoy. It was part of Discovery’s Air Jaws: Fin of Fury section for Shark Week one year. I had to google more about the video to see what they were actually trying to achieve with this decoy (see Shark Week: Inside two must-see ‘Air Jaws: Fin of Fury’ moments). When I first watched the video, I was really curious about what data they were trying to collect. Turns out, not much. They were using a 14-foot decoy to try to lure out an aggressive “mega-shark” nicknamed Colossus. I guess they just wanted him on film. The biologist/shark whisperer, Dickie Chivell, basically lays flat on what looks like a thin piece of plastic with black buoys and turns a handle back and forth to generate tail movement. Apparently, they thought the movement would help make the shark look more lifelike/alluring to Colossus, who ended up being a no-show, but Dickie did not get shredded by a great white, so that was a major plus. It seems like a ridiculous stunt, and I have no idea how it got the go-ahead as it is absurdly dangerous. Hopefully, they figure out how to make a motorized shark in the future…But, there ya go, another example of decoy use.
The final topic that I wanted to touch on was sunflowers: Using Sunflower to Decoy Birds Away From Sunflower. This was not a robotic/artificial decoy, but a decoy nonetheless. Blackbirds are notorious for damaging sunflower fields and frustrating farmers. Researchers tried an alternative approach with the hopes of redirecting blackbirds to decoy sunflower plots that they could freely damage since the farmers were not going to harvest these crops. Farmers were reimbursed for planting 13 decoy sunflower plots in wetland areas that blackbirds frequent. These plots were also not treated with insecticide as this helps attract more birds. Blackbirds destroyed 2-90% of the decoy sunflower plots, thereby helping farmers maintain their primary crops with a loss of only 0.5-24% (average 2.7%). It seems like a rather good strategy to me, but there were also improvements that could be made, which they elaborated on a little in the article. I hope y’all enjoyed learning about deceptive decoys! If you have other fun examples, please feel free to share them in the comment section below. Have a great weekend!
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