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Research overview

Research overview: flashing deterrent lights for big-cat depredation prevention

This overview reviews the use of flashing LED deterrent systems, including commercial Foxlights and the locally invented Lion Lights popularised by Kenyan inventor Richard Turere, to discourage nocturnal predators from approaching enclosures. The technique exploits predators' aversion to apparent human presence by mimicking moving torchlight. The literature reports encouraging reductions in nighttime attacks at treated bomas in Kenya and elsewhere, while flagging the central concern of habituation, predators learning the lights are harmless over time, plus battery and maintenance demands and the need for randomised, controlled, longer-term trials. The survey treats lights as a promising but not standalone component of layered deterrence.

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