The invasive mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) is a pest, chewing the tails from freshwater fish and tadpoles and leaving these native animals to perish while feasting on other creatures’ eggs. Aiming to frighten away this aquatic bully, researchers set about engineering a robot inspired by the appearance and movement of the mosquitofish’s natural predator, the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides).
“Mosquitofish is one of the 100 world’s worst invasive species and current methods to eradicate it are too expensive and time-consuming to effectively contrast its spread,” said Giovanni Polverino of the University of Western Australia, first author of the iScience study.
“This global pest is a serious threat to many aquatic animals. Instead of killing them one by one, we’re presenting an approach that can inform better strategies to control this global pest. We made their worst nightmare become real: a robot that scares the mosquitofish, but not the other...