{"id":65919,"date":"2025-08-07T20:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/65919\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T20:15:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:15:10","slug":"usda-uses-ac-dc-scarlett-johansson-movie-scene-to-scare-away-wolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/65919\/","title":{"rendered":"USDA uses AC\/DC, Scarlett Johansson movie scene to scare away wolves"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken a unique approach to scare wolves<\/a> away from cattle<\/a> in southern Oregon and California.<\/p>\n

Researchers have found some success chasing the predators with drones equipped with loud speakers, blasting the sounds of AC\/DC\u2019s \u201cThunderstruck\u201d and an argument between actors Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver in the Oscar-nominated movie \u201cMarriage Story,\u201d according to a recent Wall Street Journal article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They deployed drones recently at Jim and Mary Rickert\u2019s Prather Ranch in Macdoel, California, according to the Journal. The ranch is just across the border from Oregon about 30 miles from Klamath Falls.<\/p>\n

Mary Rickert told The Oregonian\/Oregonlive that wolves killed 20 cows on the ranch last year. Forty calves also died, she said, either snatched by wolves or lost when their mothers miscarried after being chased and attacked by wolves. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not typical,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been gut wrenching for us, in terms of the loss of life of our animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she and her husband have noticed that the herd has been more spread out and relaxed this week with the drones, compared to being huddled up when they feel threatened. <\/p>\n

But the ranchers also said wolves adapt quickly. They might soon \u201cget used to the arguments by the actresses,\u201d Jim Rickert said.<\/p>\n

\"2020This image released by Netflix shows Scarlett Johansson, left, and Adam Driver in “Marriage Story.” In 2020, the film was nominated for an Oscar for best picture. Johansson and Driver were also nominated for best leading actress and leading actor, and Laura Dern took home the supporting actress award. (Netflix via AP) APAP<\/p>\n

The USDA also used the drones in southern Oregon\u2019s Klamath Basin, where 11 cows were killed by wolves over a 20-day period, according to the Journal. With the drones on patrol, only two cows were killed over the next 85 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need the wolves to respond and know that, hey, humans are bad,\u201d Paul Wolf<\/a>, a USDA district supervisor based in Jackson County, told the Journal.<\/p>\n

The agency is \u201ctesting various sounds as part of a research project to see what elicits the strongest responses from the wolves,\u201d USDA spokesperson Tanya Espinosa told The Oregonian\/OregonLive.<\/p>\n

The audio from \u201cThe Marriage Story\u201d was chosen to test whether wolves were deterred by human voices, because the clip has both male and female voices to represent different tones, Espinosa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the pilots have the ability to speak directly to the wolves through the speaker on the drone, this standard audio was chosen to control for individual differences in tone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In addition to AC\/DC and \u201cMarriage Story\u201d scenes, the researchers and biologists operating the drones use other sounds to \u201chaze\u201d the wolves, the Journal article said, including stern yells, Five Finger Death Punch\u2019s song \u201cBlue on Black\u201d and the sounds of fireworks and gunshots.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Maddie Khaw covers breaking news, public safety and more for The Oregonian\/OregonLive. Reach her at mkhaw@oregonian.com.<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken a unique approach to scare wolves away from cattle in southern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-65919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}