No, I’m not talking about the Marilyn Manson album Mechanical Animals, but close to it.

One of the greatest things humans can do is rebuild things they’ve damaged.  From bionic tails for dolphins and artificial coats for featherless penguins, to an artificial beak for a wounded eagle named Beauty, humans have come a long way when it comes to helping the disabled or injured (be they animal or humans like Oscar Pistorious with dreams of Olympic glory) run, jump, play, and survive in a harsh and dangerous world.  Now the study of that harsh and dangerous world is getting easier, thanks in no small part to the experience scientists have in assisting injured animals, with the invention of the mechanical squirrel. 

I remember a few years ago in college watching a documentary on baby polar bears.  Now, there’s no way mama bear is going to let you anywhere near her babies if you’re not also a member of the polar bear sleuth, and I doubt a scientist would like to try that because nobody like to be viciously mauled.  So in order to get all that cuddly bear footage, the researchers mounted a camera on a remote controlled monster truck, put a protective fake rock covering over the whole shebang, and thus Bouldercam was born (and because I was watching it with some friends while imbibing beverages of the adult nature, the adventures of Bouldercam became a common inside joke, usually told in a British documentarian accent). 

Bouldercam was useful in getting around the natural inclination of animals to fear the unknown, but it wasn’t exactly useful for triggering specific behavior for study.  The mechanical squirrel and other mechanical animals are.  The next step would be to rig up a way to observe life from the mechanical squirrel’s point of view with tiny cameras to make the observation process even easier.  Rocky the squirrel is only the first step; just wait until they build Dudley Do-Right to observe the habits of the Canadian Mountie in the wild!

Image credit:  WoW Insider

Tags: rocky, mechanical squirrel, science, nature, research,  wildlife, animals

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