Wisconsin Taxidermist Pulls Wool Over Poachers’ Eyes

Poachers. They brazenly break the rules to take down wildlife. But now the wildlife is fighting back.

Well, sort of.

Robotic Wildlife Inc. in Kronenwetter, Wisconsin, creates animatronic taxidermy displays to assist law enforcement in catching those who hunt illegally.

Poachers are a clever lot, so it can take extraordinary means to nab them. And that’s proprietor Brian Wolslegel’s specialty. Using animal skins and remote-controlled car parts, among other things, he creates realistic decoys of animals such as deer, elk, moose and hogs, with moving ears and tails that provide a lifelike appearance to lure in the unsporting type.

It doesn’t stop there, though. To stay ahead of the game, he’s working on a decoy that will give off a heat signature to dupe hunters using thermal scopes, and another that uses CO2 to simulate an animal’s breathing on a cold day. Wolslegel has even gone so far as to put a little hatch on the south end of a northbound deer that releases brown M&Ms on command for a, um, surprising bit of detail.

That, friends, is called committing to the bit.

Authorities aren’t just putting these decoys into the field and hoping a nogoodnik with a hunting rifle comes along. They are typically used to entice a known poacher. And it works. An officer in Oregon did a study and found that one $2,000 robotic decoy pulled in $30,000 of fines over the course of 10 years.

Not all of Robotic Wildlife’s custom taxidermy is used for catching bad guys though. They also do work for TV and movies when there’s a need for realistic-looking animals. One of their wall-mounted bucks even served as pitchman for Mountain Dew, appearing in a TV commercial with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

So, remember, poachers, that animal in your crosshairs might be part of a sting operation. Why don’t you set down your rifle and do something else. Like eating some brown M&Ms.