ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A headless robot about the size of a labrador retriever will be camouflaged as a coyote or fox to ward off migratory birds and other wildlife at Alaska's second largest airport, a state agency said.
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has named the new robot Aurora and said it will be based at the Fairbanks airport to “enhance and augment safety and operations," the Anchorage Daily News reported.
The transportation department released a video of the robot climbing rocks, going up stairs and doing something akin to dancing while flashing green lights.
Those dancing skills will be put to use this fall during the migratory bird season when Aurora imitates predator-like movements to keep birds and other wildlife from settling near plane infields.
The plan is to have Aurora patrol an outdoor area near the runway every hour in an attempt to prevent harmful encounters between planes and wildlife, said Ryan Marlow, a program manager with the transportation department.
The robot can be disguised as a coyote or a fox by changing out replaceable panels, he said.
“The sole purpose of this is to act as a predator and allow for us to invoke that response in wildlife without having to use other means,” Marlow told legislators last week.
The panels would not be hyper-realistic, and Marlow said the agency decided against using animal fur to make sure Aurora remained waterproof.
The idea of using a robot came after officials rejected a plan to use flying drones spraying a repellent including grape juice.
Previous other deterrent efforts have included officials releasing pigs at a lake near the Anchorage airport in the 1990s, with the hope they would eat waterfowl eggs near plane landing areas.
The test period in Fairbanks will also see how effective of a deterrent Aurora would be with larger animals and to see how moose and bears would respond to the robot, Marlow told the Anchorage newspaper.
Fairbanks “is leading the country with wildlife mitigation through the use of Aurora. Several airports across the country have implemented robots for various tasks such as cleaning, security patrols, and customer service,” agency spokesperson Danielle Tessen said in an email to The Associated Press.
In Alaska, wildlife service teams currently are used to scare birds and other wildlife away from runways with loud sounds, sometimes made with paintball guns.
Last year, there were 92 animal strikes near airports across Alaska, including 10 in Fairbanks, according to an Federal Aviation Administration database.
Most strikes resulted in no damage to the aircraft, but Marlow said the encounters can be expensive and dangerous in the rare instance when a bird is sucked into an engine, potentially causing a crash.
An AWACS jet crashed in 1995 when it hit a flock of geese, killing 24 people at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage.
If the test proves successful, Marlow said the agency could send similar robots to smaller airports in Alaska, which could be more cost effective than hiring human deterrent teams.
Aurora, which can be controlled from a table, computer or on an automated schedule, will always have a human handler with it, he said. It can navigate through rain or snow.
The robot from Boston Dynamics cost about $70,000 and was paid for with a federal grant.
Alaska Department of Transportation program manager Ryan Marlow demonstrates the agency's robotic dog in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 26, 2024. The device will be camouflaged as a coyote or fox to ward off migratory birds and other wildlife at Alaska's second largest airport, the DOT said. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)
This illustration provided by the Alaska Department of Transportation in March 2024 depicts what the robot Aurora would look like with a graphic design disguising it as a fox. The device will wear wraps showing it as a fox or coyote as it is tested this fall to move waterfowl and other wildlife away from planes at Fairbanks International Airport. (Ryan Marlow/Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities via AP)
An Alaska Department of Transportation robotic dog walks through snow in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 26, 2024. The device will be camouflaged as a coyote or fox to ward off migratory birds and other wildlife at Alaska's second largest airport, the DOT said. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)
Alaska Department of Transportation program manager Ryan Marlow demonstrates the agency's robotic dog in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 26, 2024. The device will be camouflaged as a coyote or fox to ward off migratory birds and other wildlife at Alaska's second largest airport, the DOT said. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — The United Nations' annual climate talks pushed into overtime Saturday as negotiators pressed on to get a deal on money for developing nations to curb and adapt to climate change.
Several countries were left angry and disappointed at the latest proposed deal from the talks on Friday afternoon. That draft pledged $250 billion annually by 2035, more than double the previous goal of $100 billion set 15 years ago but far short of the annual $1 trillion-plus that experts say is needed.
Top leaders and negotiators — including the U.K.’s Ed Miliband, Germany’s climate envoy Jennifer Morgan and delegates from Central and South American countries — huddled in offices much of Saturday as they hashed out a new deal that both rich and developing nations could agree on. Sources within the negotiations told The Associated Press that the next version of the deal could see a new, higher figure of $300 billion under the right conditions.
But for Panama's negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez even a higher figure is “still crumbs.”
“How do you go from the request of $1.3 trillion to $300 billion? I mean, is that even half of what we put forth?” he asked.
Alden Meyer, of the European think tank E3G, said negotiators now have very little room for error.
“They’ve got to make sure whatever they put on the table is something that can fly. ... Because otherwise we start to lose critical mass as ministers start to leave tonight and into tomorrow,” Meyer said. “So, they are under a deadline, but this is when it gets real.”
The climate talks, called COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, were scheduled to end Friday. Workers have already begun dismantling the venue for the talks.
Wealthy nations are obligated to help vulnerable countries under an agreement reached at these talks in Paris in 2015. Developing nations are seeking $1.3 trillion to help adapt to droughts, floods, rising seas and extreme heat, pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather, and transition their energy systems away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy.
“We’re doing everything we can on each of the axes to build bridges and to make this into a success,” said EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra.
On Saturday morning, Irish environment minister Eamon Ryan said that he felt there'll be a new number in the next draft.
"We’ll have to see what the final number is. I don’t think it’ll be the one initially published yesterday," Ryan said. “But it’s not just that number — it's how do you get to 1.3 trillion."
Ryan said that any number reached at the COP will have to be supplemented with other sources of finance, for example through a market for carbon emissions where polluters would pay to offset what they emit.
The amount in any deal reached at COP negotiations — often considered a “core” — will then be mobilized or leveraged for greater climate spending. But much of that means loans for countries drowning in debt.
"We have to get agreement quickly. And I hope and believe we can,” Ryan said.
Panama's Monterrey Gomez slammed rich nations for how they've handled the talks so far.
“This is what always the developed world does to us in all multilateral agreements," he said. “They push and push and push, and at the last minute, they get us tired, they get us hungry, they get us dizzy.”
It means any agreements reached “don’t truly represent the needs of our people," he said.
Some observers were also wary about how negotiations were going Saturday.
“A fundamental principle of U.N. summits is that they are a party driven process, where countries are supposed to negotiate directly with each other,” said Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa.
But this year, open negotiations have been replaced with backroom deals, and there's been pressure on developing countries to accept an offer that's far from what they wanted, he said. "This is a worrying sign and must not be allowed to happen,” he said.
Meyer of E3G said it’s also still up in the air whether a deal will come out of Baku at all.
“It is still not out of the question that there could be an inability to close the gap on the finance issue,” he said. “That obviously is not an ideal scenario.”
Activists continued to protest within the venue Saturday, with dozens outside one of the main plenary halls calling for a more ambitious finance deal. They called for “trillions, not billions” in climate cash and pushed for countries to phase out planet-warming fossil fuels.
Late Friday, Several dozen activists marched in silence outside the halls where delegates meet, raising and crossing their arms in front of themselves to indicate rejection of the draft text.
Also late Friday, 355 civil society organizations released a letter in support of the G77 and China negotiating group’s rejection of the latest draft.
The letter urged negotiators to “stand up for the people of the Global South," saying that “no deal in Baku is better than a bad deal.”
Lidy Nacpil, a Filipino coordinator with the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, said activists would still be unhappy if the climate finance number doubles to $500 billion.
“We’re still at this point where we are asking developing countries to stay strong and not just give in to far, far less than what should be,” she said.
Associated Press journalists Ahmed Hatem, Aleksandar Furtula and Joshua A. Bickel contributed to this report.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Activist Harjeet Singh holds a sign as he attends a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
An activists participates in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Jennifer Morgan, Germany climate envoy, speaks in a hallway during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
John Podesta, U.S. climate envoy, walks in the hallway during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Panama Climate Envoy Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez speaks to members of the media at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Marina Silva, Brazil environment minister, stands near a sign for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
John Podesta, U.S. climate envoy, center right, and U.S. Deputy Climate Envoy Sue Biniaz, center, walk outside the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
A member of security stands with the Baku Olympic Stadium in the background during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Attendees pull luggage as they walk into the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Australia Climate Minister Chris Bowen, center, walks through a hallway at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
U.S. Deputy Climate Envoy Sue Biniaz, right, and Wopke Hoekstra, EU climate commissioner, second from right, walk out of an elevator during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
John Podesta, U.S. climate envoy, right, walks through the hallways of the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
People sleep in the Chinese delegation offices at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Activists demonstrate in silence protesting a draft of a proposed deal for curbing climate change at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
