Felixer 3. This is the name of a fearsome cat-killing robot that will be deployed in Australia as part of the fight against the proliferation of wild cats that have invaded the country and are threatening local wildlife, reports the Australian public channel. ABC News. The Western Australian state government, where the city of Perth is located, approved a five-year strategy to eradicate feral cats in late June. Cost of operation? 7.6 million Australian dollars (4.7 million euros).
In addition to a multiplication of traditional toxic baits left in the wild to poison felines, it therefore provides for the deployment of this machine capable of recognizing animals to target those to be slaughtered. The metal box, powered by solar energy, is equipped with cameras and lasers that detect passing animals and know how to identify cats. When an individual is spotted, a dose of “toxic gel” is projected on him. He will then ingest it while washing, then die.
The robot has been tested “thousands” of times, Reece Whitby, Minister for the Environment of Western Australia, assures ABC News: each time, “it was able to differentiate a wild cat from native species”. “Most native carnivores are too small” to trigger the machine, specifies on its website the manufacturer, Thylation, which however points out that some errors are possible, especially with the largest Tasmanian devils and baby dingoes.
Although simple to maintain according to the manufacturer, these very expensive machines cannot be deployed on a large scale. Only 16 of them will be installed in the state, the largest in Australia, which covers the western third of the country. According to Reece Whitby, they should especially be positioned in places where many cats are concentrated and on obligatory passageways, such as a ravine or along a fence.
The method may seem cruel, but the continent has been fighting the scourge of feral cats for decades. Introduced by European settlers, they have invaded almost the entire country and cause great damage to local fauna. They have already contributed to the extinction “of more than 20 native mammals” and “threaten the survival of 100 additional species” that they hunt for food, underlines the federal ministry of the environment. A 2020 Australian Parliament report put their number at 2.8 million. “We are not talking about granny’s cat, defended Reece Whitby to the News media, but about large predators programmed to be killing machines.”
