Robot rabbits the latest tool in Florida battle to control invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades
West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP) – Birmanya Python seems to be like a hairy Everglades swampy rabbit, moving and even smelling. However, these rabbits are robots aimed at pulling giant invasive snakes from storage points.
Southern Florida Water Management Zone Eliminate the pythons As much as possible, they destroyed the local species from Everglades as much as possible with glutton appetite. At the Everglades National Park, the authorities say that snakes have eliminated 95% of small mammals and thousands of birds.
“Removing them is quite simple. Determine. We have difficulty finding them,” the invasive animal biologist leader Mike Kirkland said. “It was very well camouflaged in the field.”
Researchers of the water area and the University of Florida deployed 120 robot rabbit as an experiment this summer. Previously, there was an attempt to use live rabbits as snake feeds, but it became very expensive and time consuming, Kir Kirkland said.
Robots are simple toy rabbits, but adapted to make natural movements to spread heat, an odor and look like other normal rabbits. “They look like a real rabbit, Kir Kirkland said. A python is placed in small pens watched by a video camera that sends a signal nearby.
Kirkland said, “Then I can go out and talk about one of our many contradicnts to go out and remove Python,” Kirkland said.
The authority added that the total cost per rabbit is about $ 4,000 financed by the water zone.
The pythons are not unique to Florida, but the swamp was founded in Subtropical Everglades, escaping from houses or releasing them when they are over -enlarged pets. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Protection Commission, a female Python can reach 50 to 100 eggs at a time with a 60-90-day pregnancy period.
It is not easy to find exact estimates of the number of pythons in Florida. The US geology research recently reported a basketball field “tens of thousands of”, while other official forecasts were as high as 300,000 snakes. Although there are occasional encounters with crocodiles, they have a few natural enemies and other predators, such as Bobcats and coyote, eat their eggs.
The Wildlife Commission says that since 2000, more than 23,000 snakes have been removed from wild nature. Robot rabbits are the last attempt to address the snakes that are 10 to 16 feet (3 to 5 meters) on average When it grows completely.
Ron Every invasive Piton, Florida, makes a difference for the surroundings and indigenous wildlife of Florida, Ron said Ron Bergeron, a member of the Board of Directors of the water region.
Pitons can be killed humanely throughout the year in private lands and land managed by the Wildlife Commission throughout the state.
Every year the commission is “Florida Python Challenge” This is most captured python, the longest snake and so on. Cash for cash. This year, 934 people from 30 states participated in the effort in July and caught 294 pythons with the highest award of 10,000 dollars for a participant who bags 60 of the reptiles.
The Robot Rabbit Project is too early to determine how successful it will be, but the authorities say the first results are a reason for optimism.
Kirkland, “This part of the project in infancy,” he said. “However, we are sure that after giving enough time to solve some of these details, it will work.”
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Anderson, St. Petersburg reported from Florida.
