A cruel strategy…but necessary. The government of Western Australia approved, at the end of last June, the establishment of robots equipped with artificial intelligence to kill millions of stray cats, also called feral cats, which harm the local fauna.
Introduced by British settlers, felines are indeed, according to Geo, responsible for the disappearance of 9 million animals, on a daily basis and on the whole of the Australian territory. Among them, mammals, including the endemic marsupial anteater, reptiles, birds, invertebrates and even amphibians.
poison 1080
To overcome the scourge, there are six million stray cats in Australia, a robot named Felixer has been tested for many years in this state.
This one, thanks to the artificial intelligence with which it is equipped, is able to recognize the cats then to throw them a jet of eight milligrams of sodium fluoroacetate, also called “poison 1080”, extremely harmful for felines. Once touched, the cat will lick itself off and swallow the poison.
A total of fifteen of these solar-powered devices will be deployed. Artificial intelligence makes it possible to specifically identify cats, and to spare other animal species. In order to avoid all risks, a curfew has already been put in place for domestic cats.
To counter the scourge of feral cats, Australia spends around 180 million euros on traps and baits.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
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