“Our partners have allowed us to trial these things that may sound a little crazy,” says Robert McCleery, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Florida who’s leading the rabbit project, to the Palm Beach Post. “Working in the Everglades for ten years, you get tired of documenting the problem. You want to address it.”
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In the past, researchers have experimented with placing live rabbits in pens in a bid to attract the invasive serpents in Everglades National Park. The live rabbits were indeed effective at luring the snakes, drawing in about one per week, but caring for and managing the small mammals was labor-intensive. Researchers wondered if robotic rabbits might do the job just as well.