This summer, the University of Florida spread 120 robot rabbits to the Florida Everglades near West Palm Beach to lure out the serpents for an expert to remove, spending about $4,000 per robot, according to NBC News. While officials say it's too early to determine how successful the traps will be, Florida's reigning python-slaying champion Taylor Stanberry tells New Times she's skeptical about the $480,000 price tag.
The Naples woman won the annual Florida Python Challenge after vanquishing 60 Burmese pythons during the ten-day event in July. The snake-wrangling social media influencer, who runs an exotic animal rescue in South Florida, beat more than 900 snake-slayers during the event, vanquishing 60 of the record-setting 294 pythons removed, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Stanberry claimed $10,000, FWC's top prize in the competition, and tells New Times that she thinks the $480,000 could be better spent.
"That’s crazy how much they’ve spent on it," Stanberry said in a written statement. "I would have to do more research on it, but I don’t see how it would be that effective. I think having paid contractors look for pythons is more effective, and with that kind of funding, some contractors could do the job full-time if they got paid more instead of the small wage we get now."
South Florida Water Management District financed the furry arsenal and helped university researchers deploy the robot rabbits throughout the Everglades. NBC News described the robots as simple toy rabbits that researchers Frankensteined to smell, move, and emit heat like a live rabbit. They're solar-powered and can be turned on and off remotely.
The South Florida Water Management District teamed up with the University of Florida researchers to deploy 120 robot rabbits to lure Burmese pythons from the Florida Everglades.
The rabbits sit inside small transparent boxes that send an alert when a python approaches, prompting experts to move in for removal. You can almost hear python conspiracy theorists screaming, "The rabbits aren't real! They abducted my cousin!"
Burmese pythons are widely considered one of South Florida's most destructive invasive species. They prey on native species like birds, rodents, and reptiles, according to FWC.
As they spread through Everglades National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a science-based bureau of the federal government, reports that native mammal populations have sharply declined. Between 1997 and 2012, raccoon populations in the Everglades decreased by 99 percent, opossums by 99 percent, and bobcats by 88 percent, according to a USGS study.
