Florida’s Everglades are teeming with gigantic, invasive snakes, but a fluffy, high-tech solution is poised to help.
The state is turning to robotic stuffed rabbits to help trap invasive Burmese pythons, which are disrupting the state’s fragile wetland ecosystems and harming its native species by gobbling up food sources. Florida is regularly on the hunt for the pythons due to the threat they pose to the state’s furry fauna, much of which count as prey for the huge snakes.
The University of Florida and the South Florida Water Management District developed the python-hunting tech this year, crafting remote-controlled, solar-powered stuffed rabbits that look and even smell like the real thing. The robo-rabbits also emit a realistic heat signature, sending the message to heat-sensing snakes