14 DAY TRIAL // Transport officials in Hokkaido, northern Japan, are now asking workers to spray wolf urine and play recordings of lion roars close to roads. They hope that this will help keep local deer from jumping in front of cars and causing serious accidents.
Towards the beginning of the 20th century, there were very few deer left to inhabit Hokkaido.
Harsh winters and people's habit of hunting them whenever they got the chance was what drove these herbivores close to extinction.
Fast forward several years and, thanks to several conservation projects, this part of Japan is home to a tad more deer that it can handle.
According to Daily Mail, the island houses so many deer that the number of accidents for which these animals are responsible has doubled over the past decade.
The imported wolf urine, which, by the way, comes from the United States, and the lion roars might help Japanese transport officials gain control of the situation for a while, but sooner or later the deer will grow accustomed to the smell.
When this happens, transport officials will have to figure out some other way of dealing with the problem.