Page 32 - aruba-today-20170504

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 4 May 2017
Robots, high-tech tools join battle against invasive species

SETH BORENSTEIN It’s still experimental but it
AP Science Writer will soon go to more regular
WASHINGTON (AP) — A ro- use. There is one problem.
bot zaps and vacuums up Using dead fetal mice as
venomous lionfish in Ber- bait is expensive and they
muda. A helicopter pelts have to be kept cold. But
Guam’s trees with poison- biologists are working on a
baited dead mice to fight solution: mouse butter. A
the voracious brown tree new bait mixture smells like
snake. A special boat with mice to snakes, but minus
giant winglike nets stuns the expense and logistical
and catches Asian carp in problems.
the U.S. Midwest. ASIAN CARP
In the fight against alien U.S. Fish and Wildlife offi-
animals that invade and cials are using souped-up
overrun native species, the old technology to catch
weird and wired wins. Asian carp, a fish that’s
“Critters are smart — they taken over rivers and
survive,” said biologist Rob lakes in the Midwest. They
“Goose” Gosnell, head of In this artist photo provided by Robots in Service of the Environment shows, taken April 18, 2017, use a specialized boat —
U.S. Department of Agri- the first day a new robot was used to hunt dangerous and invasive lionfish in Bermuda. the Magna Carpa — with
Associated Press
culture’s wildlife services in giant winglike nets that es-
ral predator in the Atlantic, from tens of thousands of sentially uses electric cur-
the voracious aquarium dollars to about $500. rent as an underwater stun
fish devour large amounts “What’s next?” Angle said. gun to shock the fish, said
of other fish including key “Our ambition is much larg- biologist Emily Pherigo. At
commercial fish species er than lionfish.” higher doses, the fish are
such as snapper and grou- BROWN TREE SNAKES killed and float to the sur-
per. The robot is the cre- A few decades ago, native face. In just five minutes,
ation of Colin Angle, chief birds started disappearing they can collect 500 fish,
executive officer of IRobot, from the Pacific island of and later turn them into
which makes the Roomba Guam, baffling scientists fertilizer. Using electro-fish-
vacuum cleaner. Along until they found that non- ing was written about as a
with his wife, Erika, and col- native brown tree snakes possible conservation tech-
leagues, he created a new were eating all the birds nique back in 1933, said bi-
nonprofit to turn automa- and their eggs. The snakes, ologist Wyatt Doyle.
tion into environmental which live in the trees, had WILD GOATS
In this photo provided by the USDA/APHIS Wildlife Services, new- tools. no natural enemies and On the Galapagos islands,
ly designed aerial bait cartridges consist of dead mice with 80- The robot, called Guard- just trapping them wasn’t wild goats were a major
mg acetaminophen tablets and a biodegradable streamer-like ian LF1, uses what Angle working, Gosnell said. The problem. In less than five
cartridge. says is a gentle shock to snakes did prove to have years, scientists wiped out
Associated Press immobilize the lionfish be- one enemy: the painkiller tens of thousands with ster-
fore they are sucked alive acetaminophen, a generic ile “Mata Hari” females.
Guam, where brown tree Guam, according to Piero into a tube. In its first public form of Tylenol. Biologist Karl Campbell of
snakes have gobbled up Genovesi, an Italian scien- outing this month, the ro- So biologists came up with the nonprofit Island Con-
nearly all the native birds. tist who chairs the invasive bot caught 15 lionfish dur- a plan : Use a painkiller pill servation introduced spe-
“Trying to outsmart them is species task force for an ing two days of testing in glued to dead fetal mice cialized female goats that
hard to do.” international organization . Bermuda. Top chefs com- as bait. The mice are put researchers sterilized and
Invasive species are plants “We have totally new tools peted in a cook-off of the in tubes, and dropped by chemically altered into a
and animals that thrive in that were just unthinkable a captured lionfish. Lionfish helicopter in batches of permanent state of heat,
areas where they don’t nat- few years ago,” Genovesi go for nearly $10 a pound 3,000. The mice pop out, to lure the male goats into
urally live, usually brought said. and Angle is hoping to get and the whole contrap- fruitless goat sex. Santiago
there by humans, either ac- Case in point: There are the price of the robot down tion dangles in the trees. Island, once home to 80,000
cidentally or intentionally. companies that now mar- goats, is now goat free and
Sometimes, with no natu- ket traps for wild pigs that larger Isabella Island is get-
ral predators, they multiply are triggered by cell- ting close, he said.
and take over, crowding phones. “There’s enough And now, Campbell and
out and at times killing na- activity that there’s starting others are going one step
tive species. to be an industry,” said Uni- further: Tinkering with the
Now, new technology is versity of California, Santa genes of mosquitoes and
being combined with the Cruz research biologist Ber- mice to make them ster-
old methods — weed pull- nie Tershy. ile or only have male off-
ing, trapping and pesti- LIONFISH spring . That would even-
cides. Finding new weap- A new underwater robot is tually cause a species to
ons is crucial because in- targeting the stunning but die off on an island be-
vasive species are costly dangerous lionfish , which cause of lack of females to
— $314 billion per year in has spread over the Carib- mate with. There are wor-
damages in just the United bean, the Gulf of Mexico ries about regulating and
States, United Kingdom, and up the U.S. East Coast controlling this technology,
Australia, South Africa, In- as far north as New York’s In this June 13, 2012 file photo, Asian carp, jolted by an electric along with actually be-
dia and Brazil. It’s also one Long Island, with its venom- current from a research boat, jump from the Illinois River near ing able to get it done, so
of the leading causes of ex- ous spines that are danger- Havana, Ill. it is years away, Campbell
tinction on islands, such as ous to touch. With no natu- Associated Press said.q