The Australian government plans to use robots that use artificial intelligence to alleviate the problem of stray cats that plague the local wildlife, as well as other programs to eliminate hundreds of thousands of felines annually.
“These feral cats are incredibly destructive to the local fauna. We have to do something […] We are trying to give native species a chance to fight back against this amazing voracious predator,” Western Australian Environment Minister Rhys Whitby said on Tuesday, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
The Australian federal government has given the go-ahead that Western Australia may soon use stationary box-shaped robots, which will use artificial intelligence to target feral cats, as part of a program to control pet populations of wild cats that destroy native fauna.
In fact, these predators will be responsible for the extinction of 28 species in Australia, and will threaten another 124, according to the ABC.
Every day in Australia, feral cats kill more than 3 million mammals, 1.7 million reptiles, 1 million birds, 2.8 million invertebrates and 337,000 frogs, according to data posted on the Australian government website.
In the form of a box, the “Felixers” robot will use lasers and cameras to identify feral cats or foxes from other wild animals, in order to target them with 8 milligrams of a toxic gel, which the animal can eat itself. lick it then.
At least 16 of these solar-powered devices, which the minister described as a “new human and automated tool”, should be deployed in strategic environments.
“It’s revolutionary, it’s been tested all over Australia. In thousands and thousands of tests, it’s been able to correctly identify a wild cat as opposed to a domestic animal,” Reese Whitby continued.
This procedure will be in addition to others already implemented, including 880,000 grafts deployed annually at strategic locations.
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