Decoys Snare Illegal Hunters in Canada : Wildlife: From the crude to the elaborate, the devices are new allies in the battle to protect game.

Game wardens in Canada have new allies in their age-old battle against illegal hunters.

They are placing decoys--mechanical moose, automated deer and Styrofoam bears--along roadsides and in woods to catch night hunters and people shooting from their cars.

Some decoys are as crude as a plywood cutout covered by a deer skin with a pair of trophy-sized antlers nailed on top.

Others are Disney-like reproductions constructed from fiberglass with wagging tails and blinking eyes, operated by remote control by a game warden hiding in the bushes.

“As a matter of fact, the first time I saw the bear decoy it scared the tar out of me,” said Peter McDonald, a wildlife enforcement officer in northern Ontario.

“We’ve taken road kill (animals run over by vehicles) and had a taxidermist put it together,” said Dave Purvis, a wildlife enforcement specialist in Manitoba. “We find you don’t have to go that far to suck people in.”

What happens when hunters see the animal they just shot still standing?

“Initially, it’s disbelief. They do a double take and shoot again,” Purvis said. “By that time, they’ve violated the law and are apprehended.”

McDonald said the northern Ontario force doubled its rate of arrests of illegal hunters last year, when the decoys were used for the first time.

Before then, law enforcement depended on the highly unlikely chance that the hunter, warden and prey would all be in the same place at the same time.

“Over the years there have been a lot of high-speed chases,” said Art Dredin, an enforcement officer from Nova Scotia. “It makes it safer all around.”

It also makes for some amusing stories.

Dredin has seen more than one over-excited driver hop out of his car and start snapping photos of one of the deer decoys--the one they call Bambi.

More often, however, the dupes are illegal hunters, those who shoot too near highways or hunt at night.

The latter, called jacklighters, shine high-beam flashlights at their prey. The light momentarily paralyzes the dear and also makes the animal easy to see because the light bounces off their reflective eyes.

Dredin saw one hunter jump out of his truck after spotting a deer decoy and start crawling along the side of the road to get a better shot. As he slid along the ground, his pants slowly worked their way down to his knees.

“I was standing in bushes trying to keep from laughing,” Dredin said.

McDonald says he saw one hunter shoot at a moose decoy repeatedly--until there were bits of Styrofoam flying in the air.

“For some reason some hunters get very excited when they see a large trophy animal,” McDonald said.

The penalty for illegal hunting in Ontario is a fine of up to $21,500, confiscation of the firearm and a one- to three-year suspension of the license to hunt.

Decoys, which are also used by game officials in the United States, differ from region to region.

Wardens use fake bears in dumps in New Brunswick and phony coyotes in Nova Scotia. American wardens have used cement fish to hook illegal spear fishers.

Dredin says one warden in Maine has a deer decoy that is so sophisticated that, when shot, it takes a step forward and turns its head before falling over.

Dredin himself has a Canada goose in the works which he says will gracefully glide along the top of the water, driven by a submerged propeller.