As humans start to encroach more into the wild and start building and developing, it starts to displace animals from their natural habitat, which is why we’re seeing more instances of wild animals making their way into urban populations as a result. To help combat this problem, a town over in Japan has decided to employ the use of robot wolves to help deter and scare away these animals.
Over in the town of Takikawa on the northern island of Hokkaido, there have been an increase in bear sightings and attacks. In order to deal with this problem and not be forced to attack back and harm or kill these animals, city officials have deployed robot wolves placed in various locations to scare these bears away.
These robot wolves look pretty scary and measure 4 feet long and 3 feet high and come with red glowing eyes that we imagine scare regular humans, not just bears. The robot comes with a built-in motion sensor that when tripped, will cause the robot’s eyes to start glowing red and there will be a howling sequence accompanying it.
So far, it seems to be particularly effective where according to the city officials, there have been no bear encounters ever since they deployed these robots. Speaking to Mainichi, Yuji Ota, head of Ohta Seiki said, “We want to let the bears know, ‘Human settlements aren’t where you live,’ and help with the coexistence of bears and people.”