According to a US-based animatronics company, a life-sized robot dolphin could help end animal captivity by replacing live animals in aquariums and theme parks.
The ultra-realistic dolphin, which costs from $3 million (£2.3 million) and $5 million, has been developed and constructed by Edge Technologies and aims to be used instead of living creatures in Hollywood movies and underwater theme parks.
It says that swimmers, including robotic giant white sharks or even snakes that filled Jurassic-era seas millions of years ago, could dive with lifelike animatronics.
“There are like 3,000 dolphins currently in captivity being used to generate several billions of dollars just for dolphin experiences. And so there’s obviously an appetite to love and learn about dolphins,” said Edge Innovations founder and CEO Walt Conti.
“And so we want to use that appetite and offer kind of different ways to fall in love with the dolphin.
“Animatronics may bring back audiences turned off by parks using live animals,” said Mr. Conti. The inclusion of wild animals in circuses has also been banned or restricted by some 20 European countries.
The 250 kg (550 pounds), 2.5 m (8-and-a-half-foot) animatronic dolphin with skin made of medical-grade silicone at Edge’s Hayward, California headquarters headlined a school initiative in collaboration with TeachKind, part of Citizens for the Humane Care of Animals (PETA).
Edge also made the aquatic creatures used in Hollywood blockbusters “Free Willy,” “Deep Blue Sea” and “Anaconda.”
“The idea of this pilot is really to create a kind of “Sesame Street” underwater,” said Roger Holzberg, creative director for Edge’s animatronic program.”Those characters taught a generation how to feel about different kinds of aspects of humankind in ways that had never been imagined before. And that’s what we dream of with this project.”
PETA activist Katherine Sullivan said: “There is an end in sight to cruel ‘swim with dolphins’ programs, for which young dolphins are traumatically abducted from their ocean homes and frantic mothers, sometimes illegally.”
Source: Geo AR Games, Independent