How we created fake smells to trick predators and save endangered birds

The Conversation Weekly podcast is taking a short break in August. For the next few weeks we'll be bringing you extended versions of some our favourite interviews from the past few months.

This week, the story of researchers who invented an ingenious new conservation technique to protect endangered birds. Catherine Price, postdoctoral researcher in conservation biology at the University of Sydney, is part of a team of researchers who’ve found a better way. They use misinformation – in the form of fake smells – to fool predators into leaving bird nests alone.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly features an extended version of an interview first published on April 9. The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading:

• Scientists used ‘fake news’ to stop predators killing endangered birds — and the result was remarkable, by Peter Banks, University of Sydney and Catherine Price, University of Sydney
• South Korea is bringing back bears in a country of 52 million people – I went to find out how, by Joshua Powell, UCL
• ‘Bat boxes’ could help revive Canada’s depleting bat population, by Karen Vanderwolf, Trent University