13-year-old Boy Scares Off Lions With Flashy Invention

13-year-old Richard Turere, first became responsible for herding and safeguarding his family’s cattle when he was just nine. But often, his valuable livestock would be raided by lions roaming the park at night, leaving him to count losses. At the age of 11, Richard decided it was time to find a way of protecting his family’s cows, goats and sheep from falling prey to hungry lions. Richard realized that lions were afraid of venturing near the farm’s stockade when someone was walking around with a flashlight. He put his young mind to work and a few weeks later he’d come up with an innovative, simple and low-cost system to scare the predators away.

He fitted a series of flashing LED bulbs onto poles around the livestock enclosure, facing outward. The lights were wired to a box with switches and to an old car battery powered by a solar panel. They were designed to flicker on and off intermittently, thus tricking the lions into believing that someone was moving around carrying a flashlight.
And it worked. Since then, his family has not lost any livestock to the wild beasts.