Neil Jordan likes to get inside an animal's mind when he's working to save a species. Take lions, for example.

"Lions are ambush predators; they rely on stealth and the element of surprise in order to bring down their prey," he said. "As soon as they lose that element of surprise, as soon as the prey sees them, they abandon their hunt."

Painted eyes on the back of a cow could deter predation by lions. Credit:Ben Yexley/ UNSW

That is why he and fellow researchers are going to Botswana to paint eyes on cows' rumps. They hope it will prove a low-cost way to protect livestock from lions, and lions from being killed by farmers in retaliation.

One of the main threats to lions in Africa is conflict with farmers, who shoot or poison them to stop them preying on livestock. In the 1990s there were more than 100,000 African lions. There could now be as few as 23,000 adults and they are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.