Florida Deploys Robot Rabbits To Control Invasive Burmese Python Population

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: They look, move and even smell like the kind of furry Everglades marsh rabbit a Burmese python would love to eat. But these bunnies are robots meant to lure the giant invasive snakes out of their hiding spots. It's the latest effort by the South Florida Water Management District to eliminate as many pythons as possible from the Everglades, where they are decimating native species with their voracious appetites. In Everglades National Park, officials say the snakes have eliminated 95% of small mammals as well as thousands of birds. 'Removing them is fairly simple. It's detection. We're having a really hard time finding them,' said Mike Kirkland, lead invasive animal biologist for the water district. 'They're so well camouflaged in the field.'

The water district and University of Florida researchers deployed 120 robot rabbits this summer as an experiment. Previously, there was an effort to use live rabbits as snake lures but that became too expensive and time-consuming, Kirkland said. The robots are simple toy rabbits, but retrofitted to emit heat, a smell and to make natural movements to appear like any other regular rabbit. 'They look like a real rabbit,' Kirkland said. They are solar powered and can be switched on and off remotely. They are placed in small pens monitored by a video camera that sends out a signal when a python is nearby. 'Then I can deploy one of our many contractors to go out and remove the python,' Kirkland said. The total cost per robot rabbit is about $4,000, financed by the water district, he added.

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