Robot dinosaurs go on show in LA Zoo

It won’t exactly be “Jurassic Park”, the movie in which scientists used DNA to bring dinosaurs back from extinction. But then the robotic dinosaurs at the Los Angeles Zoo won’t try to eat the visitors either.

“The idea is to show people what dinosaurs looked like, how they might have moved and to use that to connect them with living animals – things like the rhinoceros, the cassowary and reptiles we have in our collection - living animals whose ancestors are very ancient,” said zoo Director John Lewis.

Zoo officials also want to drive home the point that today’s animals could go the way of the dinosaurs unless they’re protected.

“We don’t want people in the future saying: ‘What was the tiger like?'" Lewis said, adding: “Extinction is forever.”

The zoo’s Dinosaur Den opens on Friday with 18 robotic animals, including a tyrannosaurus rex, a triceratops and several young hatchlings.

The robotic dinos are supplied by Kokoro Dinosaurs, a San Fernando Valley business whose Japanese-based parent company has been making moving animal models for amusement parks since 1969.

The robots are powered by computer chips and compressed air, and can swing their heads and swish their tails. Their skeletons are made of steel and aluminium and are covered with a pliable substance similar to skin.