Biologists use drones blasting AC/DC and movie clips to scare wolves away from cattle
Researchers near the California-Oregon border are testing loud audio played from drones — including music and film dialogue — as a nonlethal tool to reduce wolf-livestock conflict.
A team of biologists working near the California-Oregon border is using drones that play loud audio — from AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” to movie dialogue — in an experimental effort to deter gray wolves from approaching cattle.
The experiment involves broadcasting recorded sounds from drones flying near pastures to startle and shoo wolves away from livestock. One clip used in the tests includes a line from the 2019 film Marriage Story in which Scarlett Johansson shouts, "I am not putting up with this anymore!" and Adam Driver replies, "With what? I can't talk to people?" The researchers also have used recorded human voices and rock music as part of the deterrent mix.
Gray wolves were hunted nearly to extinction across the U.S. West in the early 20th century. Since federal reintroduction programs in Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s, wolf populations have rebounded in many regions. A Northern Rockies population was removed from the federal endangered species list following recovery, and hundreds of wolves now inhabit Washington and Oregon, with dozens in northern California and thousands near the Great Lakes.
The recovering population has led to increased conflict with ranchers, who have sought a variety of nonlethal and lethal tools to protect livestock. In addition to aerial audio deterrents, ranchers and wildlife managers have turned to electrified fencing and wolf alarms to reduce depredations. The drone experiment is one of several creative approaches being tested to limit interactions without harming animals.
Researchers describe the drone broadcasts as part of an ongoing, adaptive effort to find scalable, repeatable deterrents that can be deployed across rangelands. The audio is intended to produce an immediate aversive stimulus that causes wolves to leave an area and, ideally, to condition them to avoid livestock pastures in the future.
Scientists caution that measures to reduce wolf-livestock conflict vary in effectiveness by location, pack behavior and familiarity of predators with particular deterrents. The use of drones and loud audio represents a relatively new tactic in wildlife management, aimed at providing ranchers with additional nonlethal options while wildlife agencies monitor outcomes and animal responses.
As wolf populations continue to expand in parts of the West, researchers and livestock producers are testing a mix of deterrence strategies to protect economic assets without unduly harming recovering predators. The drone audio trials add to a broader body of work seeking practical, wildlife-friendly ways to manage human-wildlife coexistence on working lands.