It’s not pleasant, but it is necessary. Florida is so overrun with pythons that it’s a lot easier just to kill as many of them as possible than it is to round them up and ship them off somewhere else.
Pythons are an invasive species whose mere presence poses a significant threat to the existence of Florida’s entire ecosystem. They’ve got to be killed, but it’s easier said than done. Florida is using every tool at its disposal to rid itself of this python menace, up to and including robot rabbits, like the Terminators sending a T-800 back in time to kill John Connor.
It sounds like the premise of a 1950s B-movie, but to help eliminate Burmese pythons that were shipped in as part of the exotic pet trade, these apex predators first spotted in the Everglades in the 1970s are being targeted with robot rabbits developed by the University of Florida.
Florida’s Python Problem Is So Bad, Scientists Are Deploying Robot Rabbits
UF researchers, led by Professor Robert McCleery, have unleashed a battalion of 40 solar-powered, remote-controlled robo-bunnies into the Everglades. They’re high-tech decoys cleverly outfitted with internal heaters and motors to mimic the movement and body heat of the marsh rabbit, one of the pythons’ favorite snacks.
Real rabbits are too much of a pain to care for and maintain. If you try to use one as bait, you’re essentially at the rabbit’s whims. A robot rabbit, on the other hand, does not need to be fed, and you don’t have to clean up after it.
They are waterproof, and are triggered with motion-activated cameras that ping researchers when a python stops by to give it a sniff and potentially a nibble. It’s bait that doubles as a surveillance drone.
Mike Kirkland of the South Florida Water Management District calls it a potential game-changer— assuming the pythons take the bait. But don’t worry, the researchers have a backup plan in case the pythons aren’t enticed enough: rabbit perfume.
If the mere sight of a marsh rabbit isn’t enough to lure a python, the researchers will douse the rabbits in a synthetic rabbit scent, making them fluffy, warm to the touch, and fragrant—all the things a Burmese python needs to make its ugly mug appear on camera.
There are several ways to view this. The first and perhaps most realistic way to look at it is that this is all a clever way to solve a problem caused by idiot drug dealers and generic boastful South Florida losers who thought owning a Burmese python was cool until it turned into a 14-foot beast that tried to eat their pitbulls.
The other, sillier way to look at it is that Florida’s war on the python has man rooting for the machine in a war that now pits Mother Nature against robotic rabbit overlords.
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