Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 25, 1993 TAG: 9310280373
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ST. ALBANS, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
RoboDeer is one tough character. He's been catching poachers and outlaw hunters for more than two years now, and his fame has spread far beyond his hometown of St. Albans and his home state of West Virginia.
"We never dreamed there would be a response like this," says Pete McCuskey, who, with partner Greg Jones, developed RoboDeer. Their animated deer decoy is the first of its kind in the nation, they say.
The bogus buck helped Mountain State conservation officers arrest dozens of game-law violators, mostly the sort who hunt from highway berms. Media attention spread RoboDeer's story from coast to coast, and wildlife agencies in other states immediately became interested.
Since then, McCuskey and Jones have fielded inquiries from several states.
"Canadian wildlife authorities called us about making them a RoboMoose," says McCuskey, president of Mountain Security Specialties. "We've had calls about turkey decoys, and one fellow even asked us about a movable fish."
Most callers, though, have asked to talk about deer decoys. Wildlife officials in two states, Texas and Michigan, have purchased RoboDeer decoys for use on their own scofflaw hunters.
Other states, including Virginia, have used decoy deer for a number of years, but one secret to RoboDeer's success is that no two deer do exactly the same things. The original RoboDeer swiveled its antlered head and twitched its tail. Models since then have been built to stomp their hooves, urinate, or fall down dead.
"We don't want poachers to be able to recognize the decoys because their movements are limited to head-turning or tail-wagging," Jones says.
Attention to cosmetic detail also helps sell would-be shooters on the idea that RoboDeer is real. Each decoy features a real deer hide stretched over a plastic body. The hair color of the body cover has to match that of the separate head-and-shoulder assembly. Jones says getting the colors to match can be a bit of a pain.
"On the Michigan order, we found out that their deer are much darker than the ones we have down here," he says. "We had to mousse and dye our cape to get it to match the head."
Such painstaking attention to detail doesn't come cheaply. Each radio-controlled RoboDeer sells for about $1,200. Most wildlife agency officials are reluctant to spend that kind of money, but McCuskey says sportsmen's organizations have been willing to spend the money where bureaucrats wouldn't.
"The West Virginia Trophy Hunters Association bought three of them for our Division of Natural Resources," he says. "The serious, ethical hunters are wanting to try to eliminate some of the road-hunting that goes on here."
McCuskey and Jones both hope hunters in other states will be moved to place similar orders, but they realize the market is starting to get crowded.
"We've seen ads for decoys made in Ohio and in California," Jones says. "Looking back, we probably made a mistake in not getting a patent on the idea, but I suppose we should be flattered that we're being imitated."
by CNB