Golden Showers

An interesting research tidbit from down-under. Australian researchers say they have discovered a new repellent to help them with problems with kangaroos. And it is all natural.

Down in Australia, they are rehabilitating old mine sites to reduce the amount of roadkill. What they are doing is trying to reestablish plant life on the old mine sites. The problem is that kangaroos are chewing on the new-growth vegetation. So researchers are looking for a good repellent. And they think they have found it: dingo urine.

Researchers at Curtin University have been surprised by the effectiveness of dingo urine to scare off kangaroos. They were looking at the effectiveness of chemicals found in urine of dingoes and non-native predators like coyotes.

Michael Parsons, one of the researchers, said:

When we presented tame kangaroos with coyote urine, they became interested in the new smell, but when presented with the dingo urine they were startled and fled.

And supposedly, the effect of urine on wild kangaroos was even more dramatic. The problem now for Parsons and his team to a way of delivering the repellent effectively and how much would be needed. And hopefully this will reduce the number of accidents with kangaroos & vehicles in the outback.

The goal is to try to isolate and synthesize the active chemicals in dingo urine. This would allow them to synthesize the active chemicals so it could become a commercially viable product.

He said the university was also trying to isolate and synthesize the active chemicals in dingo urine so that it could be made in quantities large enough to be commercially viable.

Of course there is the question about how the dingo urine is collected. Parsons said that they are receiving their supplies of the real thing from the Dingo Conservation Society. Yet how it is gathered is a tightly held secret. But Parsons is quoted saying:

At one stage we fashioned a little urine catcher to walk dingoes and collect it from, but that tended to be risky.

Okay, I could get really snarky here but I'll wait. Personally, I am glad to see researchers trying to find a natural way to take care of the problem. For all too long, we have relied on man-made toxins which are destroying the earth and harming the people who live on it.

Nature has many solutions which are ignored. The main reason, I believe, is patents. You can't patent dingo urine but you can patent a chain of chemicals that does not naturally occur. I see the same situation in remedies for diseases that are based on naturally occurring plants. Companies can't have a stranglehold on a solution if it is naturally available. And make zillions of dollars.

Thing is, since these chemicals are man-made, we are poisoning our planet and ourselves. We have no idea what the long terms effects these chemicals will have. And all too often for no good reason.

People are spraying crap around so bugs and mold don't kill their plants. Or keep it green. Or produce a bigger result. Natural pesticides are not as effective as chemical but so what if some of the leaves are munched on or instead of 30 tomatoes, you only get 25.

So I am glad to see research like this one but it also makes me laugh. Some of the images that came to mind were somewhat crazy. The weirdest one has to do with the dingoes. I could see dingoes, running around in the wild, with little pails around their waists. And every so often someone would go out and collect these pails.

Of course, we could have little dingo waystations and train them to take a whiz there instead of anywhere. It could be as simple as a concrete floor that has a hole in it, with a slight bowl around the hole. That way they can pee anywhere and the urine will still go into the hole.

So not only can we make money on dingo urine, money can be made with these waystations. But the key thing is to make sure only dingoes use it. I know this is segregation but we can't have koala urine mix in with the dingo urine. Separating other species urine might make the process cost prohibitive. So we need to find a natural scent that would repell all but dingoes. But it is a small price pay for the advancement of creating a natural kangaroo repellent. I would buy it.