Swiss boffins have been testing SMS-equipped sheep to see if they can send a warning text message when the big, bad wolf approaches, and it looks like they can.
The sheep don’t voluntarily send the message, but a heart-rate monitor fitted to a sheep’s collar can detect when the animal is stressed, and automatically sends an SMS message when that stress gets high enough, hopefully allowing swift intervention from the shepherd.
The trials, reported by the AFT, involved only 10 sheep who were fitted with collars and threatened with wolfdogs. Even the muzzled hounds were able to send the sheep into enough of a panic to trigger the text message, and the plan is to run (literal) field trials early next year — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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