Robot 'Monster Wolves' Try to Scare Off Japan's Bears (bbc.co.uk) 44
"Bear attacks in Japan have been rising at an alarming rate, so the city of Takikawa [about 570 miles from Tokyo] installed a robot wolf as a deterrent," reports the BBC. "The robot wolf was originally designed to keep wild animals from farmlands, but is now being used by local governments and managers of highways, golf courses, and pig farms."
Digital Trends describes the "Monster Wolf" as "complete with glowing red eyes and protruding fangs."
[T]he solar-powered Monster Wolf emits a menacing roar if it detects a nearby bear. It also has a set of flashing LED lights on its tail, and can move its head to appear more real... The robot's design is apparently based on a real wolf that roamed part of the Asian nation more than 100 years ago before it was hunted into extinction.
Japanese news outlet NHK reported earlier this month that bear attacks in the country are at their highest level since records began in 2007. The environment ministry said 53 cases of injuries as a result of such attacks were reported between April and July this year, with at least one person dying following an attack in Hokkaido in May.
Japanese news outlet NHK reported earlier this month that bear attacks in the country are at their highest level since records began in 2007. The environment ministry said 53 cases of injuries as a result of such attacks were reported between April and July this year, with at least one person dying following an attack in Hokkaido in May.
I dunno (Score:4, Interesting)
I suppose it's technically a robot, but it seems to be so low on the complexity scale that I'd call it merely animatronic.
I also suspect it's running basic motion detection and isn't actually detecting bears. Which might be annoying if you live nearby and like to sleep with your windows open, or if your home has thin walls. If I were building it, I'd want it to be able to target a bear and use a directed sonic LTL weapon to drive it away, while logging the incident with video to a central database.
On the aesthetic side of things... it's ugly. Not 'scary monster ugly' but 'incomplete build' ugly. Why not make it look like a real wolf on a platform rather than a wolf mask on a post protruding from a wolf torso, with the whole thing mounted on stilts? It's Japan and they went with a wolf! Make it a mech or a traditional dragon. Have some real fun with the project and make them proper tourist attractions!
Tourism FTW. (Score:1, Redundant)
It's Japan and they went with a wolf! Make it a mech or a traditional dragon. Have some real fun with the project and make them proper tourist attractions!
It was practically rude of them trying to prioritize functional and effective over appearance. Citizens should die fashionably, because tourism.
Let's have some 'real fun' with this project, since that's the goal. Godzilla Wolf it is. /s
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If functionality was the only consideration, there'd be no wolf at all; the light and loudspeaker would do the job.
The wolf part, with the glowing eyes, is for aesthetics.
Re: (Score:3)
the light and loudspeaker would do the job.
The light and speaker will only work until the bears become acclimated to it. Eventually, the bears will figure out that the speakers mean food is nearby.
The real solution is a .308 rifle.
Re: (Score:2)
We're talking about Japan. It should be flying fire-breathing robot wolves with lasers and glitter cannons.
And that's if it's only 1960.
Re: (Score:2)
This right there.
I'm sorely disappointed, I've seen better animatronic in the Japanese monster movies of the 1960s.
Re: (Score:2)
Sadly, most or all of that 1960s creative talent is either retired or "beyond".
Any creative talent left in Japan either draws comics (anime) or watches that infamous Japanese pixelated pr0n all day.
Re: (Score:2)
The kind with the invisible dicks?
I ... heard about that.
Re: (Score:2)
The kind with the invisible dicks?
I ... heard about that.
Yeah. You can only hear about it cuz ya can't see nothin. /not sarcasm
And rumor has it they are all 12 inches or longer over there. /sarcasm
Re: (Score:2)
I heard something different [youtube.com].
Re:I dunno (Score:4, Interesting)
This is barely more sophisticated than a traditional scarecrow.
I was expecting to see a larger version of the robot dogs that have been built recently, at least that would move around the fields so the bears wouldn't get used to its static location.
Putting sensors around the field to detect motion, and a set of commercial drones would probably work better. As soon as motion is detected, launch a drone and send it to the location to track any movement from an altitude out of its reach until it leaves the monitored area. The noise of the drone would scare away most wildlife and you'd have video evidence of whatever creatures were coming.
I can't wait! (Score:3)
The inevitable anime series based on this should be a blast!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I can't wait until they send robot bears to drive off the robot wolves.
Re: (Score:2)
Yup, I was literally looking for this comment.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Bears are smart (Score:3)
How long until the bears figure this out and just smash these things as they go about their daily bear business?
Re: (Score:3)
That bear would have to be smarter than the average bear! :D
Re: (Score:3)
You better watch your picnic basket!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Or if you have an assault rifle handy, just shoot it.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Heck, brown bears have been known to chase off packs of actual wolves and steal the prey they killed, although they generally only bother doing such a thing if food is a bit scarce for some reason; bears are sm
Re: (Score:2)
Because it's irritating.
Hunting (Score:2)
Re:Hunting (Score:5, Informative)
Their current IUCN assessment is "Vulnerable". The goal is to keep them from harming humans, not to accelerate their progress towards "Endangered".
And attacks on the rise because... ??? (Score:3, Interesting)
The closest thing to a cause in the linked NHK article gave was:
> Ministry officials say more bears are likely to appear in residential areas in the Tohoku region this autumn in search of food as acorns that make up the bears' diet are scarce in their natural habitat in the region.
I had to doublecheck what the hell is with them listing "acorns" as a bear diet (don't bears eat ANYTHING?) but apparently it's a seasonal thing for bears in that region.
Since trees don't suddenly forget to grow acorns this is perhaps a sticking plaster on a bigger ecological problem (assuming the cause wasn't simply some new golf courses built over raized oak forests because corrupt gerontocrats love money).
Re:And attacks on the rise because... ??? (Score:4, Informative)
This seems more and more like a left-right punch: Primary reason is a lack of salmon for a second season in a row; presumed to be caused by high sea temperatures. And second came the lack of acorns, for which my search-fu is failing to find event speculation about the cause.
80% of this year's bear cubs starved...
The acorn issue seems to be a steady decline over years, news from 2020 report a threat of long-haired rats (also a protected species) also due to an acorn shortage. https://www.scmp.com/week-asia... [scmp.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Bears are one of the closest things to a true ominvore that I know about. They don't have the ability to digest cellulose for energy, but I think everything that does (cows, horses, termites, etc.) is predominantly herbivorous. Apart from that, bears will eat basically anything that has calories in it: meat, fish, nuts, fruit, starchy vegetables, honey, ants, grub worms, mostly-empty junk food packaging, military rations,
Re: (Score:1)
We had the hottest summer on record this year, and the rainfall was about 1/3 less. There hardly seemed to be a day without poor farm crops on the news. A lot of plants out there just didn't grow properly. It's certainly not up to a loss of habitat.
Why does this (Score:3)
keep reminding me of an old saying....
"There is a considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists."
Re: (Score:2)
That problem usually solves itself if we let the bears act according to their nature.
Tourists are not exactly an endangered species, are they?
Am I the only one surprised that Japan.... (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Japan is a country with a lot of rugged, sparsely populated terrain as well as a lot of hyperdense cities. As you can see on a population density map [fiu.edu] there are huge areas with less than 50 people per km^2 and others with 1000/km^2 and even 5000/km^2.
Another convenient way to visualize this is to look at a nighttime view of Japan from space [nasa.gov].
Re: (Score:2)
That works for a while (Score:5, Insightful)
After a couple weeks the bears will have noticed that the loud contraption is harmless and will either ignore it or, if it's enough of a nuisance, silence it.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah. Bears are pretty smart [youtube.com].
No problem (Score:2)
Isn't this old news? (Score:2)
A bit better than rubber coyotes (Score:2)
Yes, rubber coyotes.
About 11 years ago, at the NIH, they put out these rubber coyotes (life-size, on a post) to try to control the damn Canadian geese. After a few weeks, they were nothing more than geese-botherers (to borrow from the British phrase "god-botherers" for doorbell ringers). The geese stayed about 20' away from them, but otherwise ignored them.
Re: (Score:1)
So, when they bark... (Score:2)
Do bees come out of their mouths?
Fields of Dream (Score:1)
I'm a pro at this... (Score:2)
I like to use the following approach [youtube.com] to scare off bears. It works really well, and I think Japan should consider hiring me.