The Australian government plans to use artificial intelligence robots to help alleviate the problem of stray cats ravaging local wildlife, in addition to other programs to eradicate hundreds of thousands of cats a year.
“These wildcats are incredibly devastating to native animals. We have to do something […] We are trying to give native species a chance to fight this incredibly voracious predator,” Western Australia’s Environment Minister Reece Whitby said on Tuesday, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Australia’s federal government has given the green light that Western Australia could soon deploy immobile boxy robots that would use artificial intelligence to attack stray cats as part of a program to control feral cat populations that are ravaging local fauna.
In fact, according to the ABC, these predators would be responsible for the extinction of 28 species in Australia and would threaten 124 others.
Every day, feral cats kill more than 3 million mammals, 1.7 million reptiles, 1 million birds, 2.8 million invertebrates and 337,000 frogs in Australia, according to data on the Australian government website.
So, in the form of a crate, the robot “Felixers” would use lasers and cameras to identify feral cats or foxes from other wild animals in order to selectively administer 8 milligrams of a toxic gel that the animal would ingest. lick afterwards.
At least 16 of these solar-powered devices, which the minister described as a “new human and automated tool”, should therefore be deployed in strategic settings.
“It’s revolutionary, it’s been tested across Australia. In thousands upon thousands of tests, it correctly distinguished a wild cat from a native animal,” continued Reece Whitby.
This action comes on top of other actions already implemented, including 880,000 baits deployed annually at strategic locations.