The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) had a problem. Its scientists wanted to fit feral cats with GPS systems and video cameras and then release them to track their movements. The only trouble was catching the cats in the first place.

The scientists tried using traps but the cats avoided them. Then someone got the bright idea that since dogs like chasing cats, why not train dogs to chase cats until the scientists could arrive?

University of Tasmania PhD student Hugh McGregor said, “It was that classic cartoon image of the dog chasing the cat, the cat stopping still and the dog jumping right over the cat and continuing to run.”

Now the trained dogs corner a cat long enough for scientists to attach a GPS system to it. By working with the natural order of life, scientists can now capture cats easily.

To read more about how scientists are using dogs to capture cats, click here.