BrainStuff Classics: How Can Robots Help Catch Poachers?

nab a poacher. There are too few of the former and too many of the latter on American state lands. But officials now have a tool that's helping to catch poachers while listening to chance that an animal has to die first. An army of taxidermied robotic wildlife has been unleashed across the country to help police and game wardens stop poachers. The robot animals are made by companies like Custom Robotic Wildlife, which use legally acquired animal hides and

robotic opponents to create realistic critters. With the touch of a remote controlled button, the animals move just enough to appear alive a tail twitch or a head turn when a poacher lines up a shot on them. At the other end, of those buttons are officers hiding in the bushes or a truck ready to arrest the poachers. Generally, the officers have gotten a tip that poachers are in the area, so they know where to place the decoys.

We spoke with Brian Wolfs Legal, owner of Wisconsin's custom Robotic Wildlife, who's been creating such decoys for law enforcement for twenty years. He gets requests almost every day for his animals, which range in price from about two thousand dollars for a white tailed deer, his most popular animal, to nearly five thousand for a moose. Costs include the robotics and the packaging. The prices might seem high, but molse Legal notes that the animals can be used for

many years and take many shots before being retired. So how good are these robot animals? We also spoke with Jim Reed, the director of stewardship at the Humane Society the Wildlife Land Trust. He's the man in charge of its robotic decoy program, which donates robot animals to law enforcement agencies. He said, where they have been used very little, they're incredibly effective. Where they've been used quite a bit, the poachers kind of get used to it. Then the

game wardens have to change things up a little. That's when Wolves Legal gets a call for a new animal or one that moves in a different way. He said, every year we build something different because the officers say, I hear the poachers say, if just the heads and tails move, don't shoot. So then we make an ear move or a leg move. I'm working on a white tailed deer right now for a federal law enforcement officer. She wants one that picks up its tail and poops.

How will they manage that, you ask? Wolves Legal is trying a few techniques, he said, We got a little Auger system going. I have three kids and they just love this because I buy M and M's and they get to eat every color except the dark chocolate ones. An Auger system is a conveyor system to move materials on an incline. And as for the brown M and M's, you can probably guess what' there for. Poaching is a huge problem in the United States, and the decoys are

great help. Read with The Humane Society says they're very effective. They're used to target specific crimes such as hunting from roadways, hunting out of season, and shooting from a motor vehicle. The Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust has donated more than thirty robotic decoys to various enforcement agencies since two thousand four.

Reid said, in working with game wardens around the country, we came to find out these men and women don't have the resources they require to do their jobs effectively in a lot of cases. The organization plans to continue raising funds to donate even more with the goal of eventually ending poaching wolves. Legal also builds robotic animals for private use. He said, I'm working on a sitting red fox for an autistic child with a robotic head and tail. He can plug it into the wall and away it goes.

Today's episode is based on the article Robotic animals are helping catch poachers on how Stuff Work dot com, written by Karen Kirkpatrick. Breen Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with Householpworks dot com and is produced by Tyler Clang. Or more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.