Employees of West Japan Railway Co. may have found a perfect solution to deter wild deer from getting near railroad tracks and triggering train accidents.
The JR West Wakayama office discovered lion excrement does the trick after it spread 40 kg of it in diluted form on a 400-meter stretch of the JR Kisei Line, a 200-km line that connects the city of Wakayama with Shingu in eastern Wakayama Prefecture.
Railway officials believe excrement of the king of beasts instills the most fear in other animals down the food chain.
The 400-meter section between Susami and Wakuba stations has been plagued by train accidents involving deer, but there have been no new incidents along that stretch in the more than three months since the carrier began spraying lion dung mixed with water.