TOKYO \u2013 A wolf that is not alive but still howls, growls and flashes red eyes is suddenly in the spotlight in Japan, where a jump in bear attacks has turned the mechanical creature into a surprise export-worthy hit.<\/p>\n
Although it may look like a cheap gimmick at first glance, the Monster Wolf activates when its infrared sensors detect approaching animals. It then turns its head with glowing red eyes, flashes bluish LED lights and emits loud sounds to deter animals.<\/p>\n
The faux wolf emits noises as loud as a car horn, with about 50 variations \u2013 such as animal howls and human voices \u2013 played at random to prevent the animals from getting used to a single sound. The sounds were created using artificial intelligence and copyright-free materials. <\/p>\n
Inquiries for the product have tripled recently, including about 10 from overseas, such as one from India asking whether it could also be effective against elephants.<\/p>\n
When the Monster Wolf, developed by Hokkaido-based precision machining company Ohta Seiki, was first released in 2016, it was initially mocked for its appearance as \u201cfoolish\u201d. At the time, electric fences were the mainstream tool to deter wild animals.<\/p>\n
However, after rental trials demonstrated its effectiveness and ease of maintenance, about 330 of the robots are currently in use on farms, along animal trails and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The president of Ohta Seiki Yuji Ota said: \u201cBears are very cautious animals and often act alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen there is a loud noise, they would think there is something there and would not come close.\u201d KYODO NEWS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO \u2013 A wolf that is not alive but still howls, growls and flashes red eyes is suddenly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-332788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}