The town of Takikawa on the Japanese island of Hokkaido has hired some unusual guards to keep its community safe from bear attacks: two robotic “Monster Wolves.”
Across Japan, forest habitats are being destroyed because of deforestation. That’s causing wild brown bears to wander into neighborhoods in search of food. These hungry bears can be dangerous and have attacked a record number of people in recent years.
Each wolf-bot is equipped with a motion sensor. If the device detects a bear nearby, the wolf’s eyes begin to glow red, its head moves, and a speaker blares one of 60 different sounds, including howling, growling, and the clanking of machinery. Officials say that since the robots were installed in September, there hasn’t been a single bear encounter in town.