back to article US game plods deploy robot enforcement menagerie

American game wardens and wildlife plods are deploying lifelike robotic bears, deer and turkeys in the battle against poachers, according to reports. National Geographic reports on the trend in wilderness robo-prey sting busts, explaining how scofflaw huntsmen are lured into the arms of the law: Unbeknownst to the driver, the …

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  1. Rob
    Coat

    What we really want to know is...

    Who would win in a fight, a Robot Grizzly or a Real Grizzly?

  2. Sweep

    No title

    They aren't that realistic- something like the animatronic monsters you get in theme parks. The wardens use cameras to film poachers taking shots at them. It's quite amusing watching some dumb-ass redneck repeatedly pump a robot deer full of lead and not cottoning on.

  3. M7S
    Coat

    Genuine pelts used in their construction

    Refer to icon

  4. SuperTim

    Bait Car vs Bait Turkey

    Stealing a bait car is still stealing. Shooting a robotic turkey is not poaching, but destruction of property.

    I wonder if we will see anyone get off on that major technicality?

  5. Big Bear

    Depends

    Do either have lay-zorrrrrrrs strapped to their heads or built into their chests?

  6. Peyton
    Happy

    I dunno, Rob

    I'm more intrigued by the thought of Robot Grizzly vs Robot Swimming Moose.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Nothing new here

    They've been using fake deer for a long time to catch poachers who kill from the side of the road and think they've got away with it. Lose their vehicle, gun, big fines, get locked up, and no legal hunting for a long time.

    fine by me...throw the book at 'em.

  8. Chris Seiter
    Thumb Up

    Re:What we really...

    If the robot bear is designed by Grant Imahara, I'd bet on the robot.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    how robust and expensive?

    It seems to me you'd have to have some military grade stuff to stand up to gunfire and keep browsing.

    John Steinbeck claimed to have known a cook in California who nailed a pair of antlers to a tree stump and made a tidy profit and the end of season from the lead he harvested from the stump.

  10. David Edwards

    Crocodile Dundee

    Remember the bit when he set up the kangaroo with the gun. I like that option, let the robots shoot back.

  11. cybersaur
    Coat

    Mystery solved

    So THAT's where all the bears from the Chuck E. Cheese restaurants went!

  12. Andy Bright

    Convincing enough

    What you didn't mention is the main type of crime these decoys are used for is to catch so-called hunters who shoot from moving vehicles.

    These are the idiots who keep loaded weapons on their passenger seats in case they see a deer or other game on the side of the road. They will shoot at will, regardless of whether they are in a legal hunting area and regardless of how unsafe shooting from a moving vehicle could be to anyone who maybe hunting legally, hiking or camping.

    Because they don't take the time to get a good look, it's not very difficult to fool them with decoys.

    These people are a menace. They are precisely the reason there are so many gun-related fatalities in US national parks and other areas where hunting is banned.

  13. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    Yebbut...

    ... can they build a shark with a frickin' laser on its head...?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    hunting joke

    cut n paste from the internet, but you can't copyright jokes, right?

    A man was on an all day hiking trip in the mountains of Colorado, and it's about noon, when a blizzard blows in. So, he's out walking around, lost, for nearly a week. He was starving to death! So after a few more days, he sees a spotted owl. So he grabs a rock and throws it at it, killing it. He's about halfway through it when the ranger drives up. "My god man! You're eating a spotted owl! What's wrong with you? That's an endangered animal! There are only like seven left! That's a crime!" He says, writing out a ticket. "I'm going to have to see you in court." The ranger leads the man out of the forest and a week later he goes into the courtroom. The judge says, "Young man, that was a spotted owl! You ate an endangered species! That could be a twenty year sentence!" "Now wait just a minute!" the man said. "Let me explain! I was lost, and there was a blizzard! I had been out there for a week! I was starving to death! It's not like I had gone out specifically to eat a spotted owl! It was either me or him." "Well when you put it that way..." The judge said. "You'll just get a small fine. it was survival. But tell me, what did it taste like?" The man thoughht for a moment before answering. "it was a cross between a whooping crane and a bald eagle."

  15. Chris
    Linux

    wasscally wabbits

    I'm going to agree with SuperTim. I'd even go so far as to say having an operable robot grizzly is preferable to a dead real one.

    So now that the word is out, can you get off from a true poaching charge by claiming "I never intended to shoot that deer your honor. I thought it was one of those robotic decoys."?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: Andy Bright

    I remember seeing something like this years ago on TV. A wooden deer was set up off the edge of the road, and a guy drives past, stops and whips out his crossbow (!) while still sitting in the drivers seat, and takes a shot at the deer. Amazingly he hits but the arrow bounces off. He looks a bit surprised, then lines up for another shot at it...

    Around about then, the rangers jump out of hiding and arrest him.

  17. raving angry loony

    ROTM

    In a typical ROTM move, I suggest that they also go for the right to arm bears. If the wildlife is shooting back, it might deter the duffers.

  18. Disco-Legend-Zeke

    Killer Instinct

    There are plenty od sickos out that that simply love killing things.

    Two real incidents come to mind. One was a 4WD (these guys must have tiny tools, cause they drive monster trucks) that swerved to the side of the road to kill our chahuahua.

    The other small-guy swerved to the curb in order to squash and destroy my 8 year old daughter's pink fuzzy... (wait for it)

    ....EARMUFFS Thank God thay were not on her head at the time.

    I have long entertained the thought of posting cute little plush animals along the highway sporting reflective button eyes, and stuffed with sheet rock screws. (10 x more effective than nails for tire flattening)

  19. Gwilym Smith

    But....

    I thought that bears and robots were mortal enemies*. Or perhaps I'm suffering from temperal dissonance and this is what makes it kick off?

    I can just see a frisky grizzly gets it on with robo-shebear and gets a nasty shock to his nether regions.

    I like robots, but if that happened to me, I'd do what I could to destroy them!

    *At least, according to a certain angry flower, they are.

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