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Robot Rabbits Entice Pythons
Menacing pythons spread across Florida, and what stands in their way? Robot rabbits.
(Robot rabbit stuffed with heater attracts pythons)
Researchers at the University of Florida have outfitted 40 furry toy rabbits with motors and tiny heaters that work together to mimic the movements and body temperature of a marsh rabbit — a favorite python meal.Chris Dutton, also a UF ecology professor but more mechanically adept, pulled the stuffing out of a toy rabbit and replaced it with 30 electronic components that are solar-powered and controlled remotely so that researchers can turn them on and off at specific times.
The rabbits were placed in different areas of South Florida in July 2025 for a test phase that includes a camera programmed to recognize python movement and alert researchers when one nears the rabbit pen. One of the biggest challenges was waterproofing the bunnies so that the correct temperature could still be radiated.
(Via Yahoo.)
Science fiction writers are of course way out ahead in this area, as in so many others. Check out the robot rabbits from Robots Don't Bleed (1950), by J.W. Groves - they're cuddly and friendly.
I was concentrating on enjoying the good food, listening with half an ear to the music, and being vaguely but pleasantly aware of the luxuriousness of my surroundings, when the two rabbits hopped up on to my table...“All right,” I grunted. “If you are not an intelligent form of life from another world, what the blazes are you?”
“Robots, of course,” chuckled the one called Clarence...
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/21/2025)
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