Our Journey

Deer are a familiar animal to everyone in Kyoto. If you venture into the suburbs, you can catch a glimpse of them at any time. This year, our project was born from the idea of solving a problem rooted in Kyoto, leading us to the damage caused by deer.

As we continued our research, we realized that the damage to crops by deer is one of the most serious problems in Kyoto, and that damage to crops by wild animals in general is not limited to Kyoto or Japan, but is also a pressing issue worldwide.

Thus, "Avoideer" was set in motion. The goal of the project was to solve the problem of agricultural damage caused by deer in Kyoto and to implement it in society in a way that could be done worldwide.

In the course of the project, we contacted a wide range of stakeholders, including government departments that compile information on crop damage, farmers who are actually dealing with this problem, and researchers studying animal behavior through field experiments, to deepen our understanding of the problems our project has to solve.

Through these activities, we ultimately finalized our project's three main goals: the creation of E. coli bacteria that release repellent substances to deer, maintenance-free long-term cultivation of E. coli bacteria, and the development of a device for energy-free concussion cultivation of E. coli bacteria. (For more information, see our Description.)

On this page, we will show you how input from the stakeholders involved shaped and changed Avoideer to be what it became.

Dialogues

We engaged in dialogue with various stakeholders on three fronts:

• Government agencies and farmers, to gather information on deer damage in Kyoto.
  

• Field researchers, to plan and lay out the field experiments needed to demonstrate our project.
  

• Hardware researchers, to design the physical structure of the Hardware device to be implemented.
  

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of dialogues with stakeholders

Knowledge procurement

Promotion Division, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Kyoto Prefecture

This department is in charge of countermeasures against wild birds and wild animals in Kyoto Prefecture. They also formulated the Specific Birds and Animals Protection and Management Plan and regularly collected information on wild birds and animals.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), crop damage by deer is a major problem in agriculture in Japan [1][2]. However, this data did not go into specifics on the local statistics. We therefore requested information from the Kyoto Prefectural Government's Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department's Promotion Division to get detailed information on crop damage caused by deer in Kyoto Prefecture.

After making inquiries, we were provided with the following two documents:

• Type 2 Specified Birds and Animals Management Plan - Japanese deer- [3]
  

• Implementation Plan for the Project of Capturing Designated Management Birds and Animals [4].
  

From these documents, we learned that Kyoto Prefecture primarily mitigated damage caused by deer in three ways:

   1.   Population control by hunting

   2.   Damage control through protective fences

   3.   Habitat management through appropriate management of forests and agricultural land

We learned that in the 2020 fiscal year, agricultural damage caused by deer within the prefecture alone amounted to 73 million yen, which had a serious impact on agriculture.

Mr. Shinya Tazuru (Local Farmer 1)

Mr. Tazuru is a farmer who grows the traditional vegetables of Kyoto, Kyo-yasai, on his farm in Kyoto City and is well versed in the agricultural situation in Kyoto. We visited his farm and spoke with him in person.

Fig.2 Deer destroying fences and entering rice paddies

Mr. Tazuru manages his own farm and does his own seed collection. According to him, deer sometimes eat the vegetables used for seed production that are crucial for the following year's business. He also told us that he prevents this by installing a 1.5-meter fence, but the deer easily jump over the fence and enter the field to eat the crops, so the fence alone is not enough to prevent agricultural damage.

Mr. Hiroaki Tsutsumi (Local Farmer 2, Alderman)

Mr. Tsutsumi is a black bean farmer and a member of the Nantan City Council in Kyoto Prefecture. In addition to visits to his farmland, we held online meetings with him.

Fig.3 Mr. Hiroaki Tsutsumi

He is also a city council member of Nantan city, Kyoto.

He told us about food damage caused by deer from two perspectives: as a farmer fighting deer damage and as a city council member involved in agricultural policy.

Behavioral Patterns of Deer

From his experience as a farmer, he shared his knowledge of deer behavior patterns as follows.

• Deer eat intensively at certain times of the year for less than one month each. Once deer invade a field, the damage is so severe that the field becomes completely depleted.

• Even with existing countermeasures such as fences and ultrasonic control methods, deer often break through the fences and eat the crops.

Insufficient budget for subsidies

Installation of fences for deer is very expensive and puts pressure on farming operations. There is a subsidy system, but the number of cases of deer eating damage is so large that it is practically impossible to apply for the subsidy, and many farmers have not been able to install protective fences even if they want to.

Additional Information

In addition, according to government statistical surveys, there is a gradual downward trend in both the number of deer and the amount of damage caused by deer. However, this is balanced out by an increase in deer coming from the forests to farmland, resulting in a continuing increase in deer-related damages.

Safety aspects of the field experiment

Dr. Masae Ishihara

Dr. Ishihara is an associate professor at the Forest Ecosystems Division, Field Science Education and Research Center, and the chief of Ashiu Research Forest, both at Kyoto University.

We discussed the safety of field implementation and animal experiments with her through multiple online meetings.

In order to determine the efficacy of our target repellent, 2-Phenylethylamine (2-PEA), we planned to conduct field experiments at the Ashiu Research Forest, an institute affiliated with our university. We consulted Dr. Ishihara, who conducts research at the Ashiu Research Forest, regarding the planning of field experiments.

This dialogue with Dr. Ishihara had a significant impact on the subsequent progress of our project. We mainly discussed the basic methods and safety considerations of field experiments.

About the field experiment

We discussed the design of the field experiment. With her help, we were able to refine our methodology. For more information, go to Appendix.

We also learned about the large dependence of field experiments on unpredictable variables and the necessity for a large number of experimental samples.

Safety Management

Dr. Ishihara also advised us about ethical and legal issues and safety management when conducting field experiments. (For more information, please refer to "Field Demonstrations with 2-PEA" in Safety)

Meeting about Hardware design

Dr. Hiroshi Uechi & Mr. Shun Uechi

We reached out to Dr. Hiroshi Uechi, who published a paper on the operation of the drinking bird toy (hereinafter, DB), about the design method for creating our hardware device [5]. In the end, we were able to speak with two experts: Dr. Hiroshi Uechi, a professor at the School of Commerce, Osaka Gakuin University, working on a thermodynamic model of DB, and Mr. Shun Uechi, a research collaborator of Dr. Hiroshi Uechi.

Fig.4 Drinking bird [6]

Integration to Project

We were able to integrate the above advice and practice Integrated Human Practice on the Design of Experiments, Hardware Design, and Safety in implementation.

Fig.5 How the dialogues with stakeholders were integrated into our project

Integration into Experimental design

In our approach to deer control, we chose the production of repellent substances from a synthetic biology approach. We aimed to make E. coli keep producing repellent substances for one month, based on Mr. Tsutsumi's comment about deer having short periods of intensive feeding.

As for the repellent substance itself, we focused on 2-PEA derived from lion urine based on past reports [7][8] and confirmed that the substance can be produced by E. coli [9][10]. However, we realized that there was no mechanism to continue producing this substance for one month because E. coli die off easily. Therefore, as a result of integrating the above field opinions and past literature, we set the long-term production of the target substance in the following three systems as the major goal of this project. (For more details on the experimental systems, go to Description, Result.)

Fig.6 Three experimental systems for long-term production of the target substance

From left to right, Quorum sensing and Lysis, Nutrient Recycle System, and Differentiation System, respectively.

Integration into Hardware design

Based on the above interviews, we aimed to protect fields from deer by deploying E. coli encapsulated devices around the fields and having the E. coli continuously produce repellent substances. However, there were no readily available devices for culturing E. coli to produce such repellent substances, so we decided to design the hardware.

The design was a solution to three problems raised by the interviewed stakeholders

According to Mr. Tsutsumi, one of the problems with the installation of deer-proof fences, the most promising current measure, is the high initial and maintenance costs. For this reason, there are many farmlands where deer control fences have not been installed. Therefore, to reduce the installation cost, we designed the device to be easily made with a 3D printer, and the power source be the energy from the vaporization heat of the water. (For more details, please visit Hardware)

Fig.7 Hardware conceptual diagram

By making the installation easier in this way, we made it possible to use the device only during the intensive feeding season, as mentioned above, so that farmers could introduce it as an inexpensive on-site deer damage control measure.

However, even if we were able to create a device that could be easily installed, there was concern that a device that would require frequent replacement would instead increase the burden on farmers.

From this feedback, we designed a device that would continue to operate with maintenance only every month, thereby eliminating the need for constant maintenance.

Fig.8 Comparison of our device with existing damage control fences, electric fences

Legend: Blue: Very bad, red: good, yellow: excellent.

Integration into Safety

Through discussions with Dr. Ishihara, we realized both the necessity and dangers of the field. In particular, we deepened our understanding of the ethical regulations and laws governing the use of deer and the safety of using 2-PEA.

Ethical and Legal Issues

We referred to the university's animal experimentation regulations [11] and the Japanese law on the protection of birds and animals [12] to rethink our project policy.

2-PEA Effects on the Environment and Human Health

During the planning stage of using 2-PEA, we investigated ThermoFisher SCIENTIFIC's safety data sheet [13] on 2-PEA to determine its environmental and human health safety. Since there was no information on environmental effects there, we concluded that there was insufficient information.

After our discussion with Dr. Ishihara, we also had an in-depth discussion within our team about the safety of field experiments. As a result, we finally decided to postpone the field experiment because we could not guarantee the certainty of safety for the ecosystem and human health.

A more detailed description of the safety aspects of the project can be found on Safety.

References

[1] (Japanese)The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. [About the damage to agriculture from wild animals in Japan.(2021)] Zenkoku no yasei chouzyuu ni yoru nousakumotu no higai zyoukyou ni tsuite. (in Japanese), https://www.maff.go.jp/j/seisan/tyozyu/higai/hogai_zyoukyou

[2] (Japanese)the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. [Now, we think of the local damages from wild animals]. Ima kakuchi de okiteiru chouzyuu higai wo kangaeru.(in Japanese) n.d. https://www.maff.go.jp/j/pr/aff/2201/spe1_01.html

[3] (Japanese) Kyoto Prefecture, [Type 2 Specified Birds and Animals Management Plan - Japanese deer-, 6th period (April 1, 2022 - March 31, 2027)], dai ni shu tokutei chouzyuu kannri keikaku - nihonzika - dai rokki. (in Japanese) n.d. https://www.pref.kyoto.jp/choujyu/documents/6th_shika.pdf

[4] (Japanese) Kyoto Prefecture, [Implementation Plan for the Project of Capturing Designated Management Birds and Animals (Japanese deer) (Late December 2019 - March 31, 2021 )]. Kyouto-hu shitei kanri chouzyuu hokaku tou zigyou zisshi keikaku (nihonzika) (2019 nen 12 gatsu zyouzyun kara 2021 nen 3 gatsu 31 niti made.). n.d. https://www.pref.kyoto.jp/choujyu/documents/r1shiteikanriplan.pdf

[5] Uechi, S. T., Uechi, H., & Nishimura, A. (2019). The analysis of thermomechanical periodic motions of a drinking bird. World Journal of Engineering and Technology, 7(4), 559-571. https://doi.org/10.4236/wjet.2019.74040

[6] Drinking bird - Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_bird

[7] Ohashi, S. (n.d.), [The Repellent Effect of Lion Excrement - To Prevent Collisions Between Trains and Deer], Raion haisetsubutsu no kihi kouka - Ressha to shika no shoutotsu wo boushi suru tame ni (in Japanese). https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144248819.pdf

[8] Ferrero, D. M., Lemon, J. K., Fluegge, D., Pashkovski, S. L., Korzan, W. J., Datta, S. R.,..., & Liberles, S. D. (2011). Detection and avoidance of a carnivore odor by prey. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(27), 11235-11240. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1103317108

[9] Zhu, Y., Yang, T., Chen, Y., Fan, C., & Yuan, J. (2020). One-pot synthesis of aromatic amines from renewable feedstocks via whole-cell biocatalysis. ChemistrySelect, 5(45), 14292-14295. https://doi.org/10.1002/slct.202003807

[10] Xu, D., & Zhang, L. (2020). Pathway Engineering for Phenethylamine Production in Escherichia coli. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 68 (21), 5917-5926. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.0c01706

[11] Kyoto University, (2020) Regulations on Animal Experimentation at Kyoto University. https://static.igem.wiki/teams/4655/wiki/regulations-on-animal-experimentation-at-kyoto-university.pdf

[12] (Japanese) the Ministry of the Environment (2002), Wildlife Protection, Control, and Hunting Management Act. https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/ja/laws/view/3736

[13] Thermo Fisher Scientific (2021), SAFETY DATA SHEET on 2-Phenylethylamine. https://static.igem.wiki/teams/4655/wiki/2-phenylethylamine-hydro-25gr.pdf

Appendix

About the field experiment

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