BrainStuff Classics: How Can Robots Help Catch Poachers?

Robotic animals can help law enforcement agents catch poachers in the act -- but only if the robots are convincing enough. Learn more in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/robotic-animals-are-helping-catch-poachers.htm

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff Lauren vog bom here with another classic episode.
I'm not ready to hand the world over to our
future robot overlords just yet, but I will say that
robots can help us do some amazing things. In this episode,
we talk about how they can help law enforcement save

(00:22):
animals from being killed by poachers. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren
vogel bomb Here. It's often hard for law enforcement to
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

(00:42):
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

(01:03):
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.

(01:23):
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

(01:46):
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,

(02:10):
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

(02:31):
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.

(02:53):
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.

(03:16):
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

(03:37):
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

(03:58):
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.