Robotic Moose Catches Poachers
In perhaps one of the most “off the beaten path” applications of robotics, the Government of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia has opted to use a Robotic Moose as a decoy to convince poachers to take that tempting shot – at which time they are promptly arrested by waiting wildlife officials.
Moose are currently on the endangered species list in Nova Scotia and this off the wall tactic is perhaps a last desperate measure to save the declining heard.
The decoy is so realistic that all of the arrests have so far have happened during daylight hours.
“This is not a fishing type operation where we just go out and see if someone’s going to shoot this particular decoy,” Mombourquette said when questioned by CTV news.
“This was a long term investigation. We were targeting specific individuals, and we were targeting specific problem areas.”
Either way, given the off the wall nature of this program it has been very successful and is apparently, by all reports being scaled up with more robotic moose being placed strategically in more locations of the Nova Scotian Wilderness.
Click here for the report from CTV News
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