Artificial Dog Barks away Monkeys and Boars in Japan

Farmers have insecticide to keep insects away and herbicide to check weeds, but no "cide" to keep monkeys and boars away.
A local manufacturer Kumano Seiko, an auto-parts maker in Kumano Shi, Mie, is marketing a device to drive moneys and boars away, reports Yomiuri August 20.

Director Y. Hizukuri of Kumano Seiko, 60, fabricated this device to help out his parental family with orange orchards and rice paddies. Monkeys and boars "monkey around " their farms, eating oranges and wrestling all over the rice paddies.

A number of farmers complain similar damages and his company embarked on research to fabricate device to check the animals. First, they collected information how serious are the damages by individually polling local farmers; then they consulted the Japan Monkey Center in Inuyama and the University of Mie to study characteristics of such animals.

Then, one day he heard his family dog Lucky bark a loitering monkey away deep into the woods. The monkey stopped loitering ever since. Mr. Hizukuri thought a barking dog might drive monkey away and came up with the idea of recording a barking dog with his master hunter. He solicited cooperation of local hunters and fabricated a sound combination of a barking dog and gunshots. He built a device that automatically emits the sound of a barking dog with gunshots.

The device is solar-energized to operate all by itself and easy to install anywhere in the fields. Less costly than electrified fences and easy to handle even by elderly farmers. It is named after Hizukuri's dog "Lucky 2". It weighs 12 kg and priced at 70,000 yen. "Don't let animals drive you off the fields; 'Lucky 2' is less costlier than keeping a live dog", says Hizukuri.

Lucky 2 is marketed within this month and reservations are currently accepted.