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[Critter's descriptions]

  • (D1) appearance closely resembles a cat
  • (D2) no bigger than a dog
  • (D3) toothless
  • (D4) strange claws to climb any surfaces
  • (D5) powerful hind legs can sprint like a cheetah
  • (D6) nose similar to dog
  • (D7) ears similar to bats but it is a mute
  • (D8) furry and black and good diver
  • (D9) warm blooded
  • (D10) good health but all drugs are known to be fatal for this animal
  • (D11) sleep patterns imitate dolphin
  • (D12) must stay in motion to live (shark) New

[Critter's abilities]

  • (A1) see 30 seconds into future
  • (A2) reset time 90 seconds into past

[Conditions]

  • (C1) use any available resources at your disposal
  • (C2) any methodology and technology must not contradicts with current known physics
  • (C3) refrain from any lethal efforts
  • (C4) no pseudo science
  • (C5) no animal cruelty

[Objective]

Capture and contain this critter long enough to attach a small tracking device around its neck and secure it with a padlock without killing it.

[Note]

  • (N1) historical records claimed that it can only use it's time manipulation ability once a day as second attempt definitely led to exhaustion and death.
  • (N2) upon activating its second ability, only this critter can remember the experience.
  • (N3) confined spaces no bigger than a 30cm box are known to trigger a nervous breakdown and result in a fatal heart attack.
  • (N4) the carcass will disappear within micro seconds but it can be resuscitated like any cat.
  • (N5) it cannot teleport.
  • (N6) susceptible to electric shock and halt brain and muscular activities New

[Version]

Just kidding, this critter will not be granted a third ability. I'm man of my word see my profile.

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  • $\begingroup$ I'm loving you people however please read my note, thanks. And I need a judge on patrol when I'm offline to examine the answer on voluntary basis, thanks a lot. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 28, 2015 at 4:28
  • $\begingroup$ I've lowered the difficulty see N6 since all of you are having a hard time. Anyway I'm truely amazed by your resilience and determination so consider this a treat out of my sympathy. Gentle reminder pls read critter's descriptions again thanks. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 29, 2015 at 2:03
  • $\begingroup$ I didn't put it as an answer because I'm rather certain it's not what you're looking for. I just couldn't stop myself but.... catnip? Especially if it has the heightened sense of smell of a dog. It will go bat crazy over it allowing you to get close, put the tracker without it ever caring about you being there. $\endgroup$
    – Spacemonkey
    Mar 29, 2015 at 4:26
  • $\begingroup$ Are you serious? Small cat maybe but not big cats, please try to understand all of this goes into my novel not that I got anything against everyone and this is a reduced difficulty maybe I will reduce it further in future stay tuned. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 29, 2015 at 4:32
  • $\begingroup$ Hmm, I assumed it was cat-sized since you only said it resembled a cat without being bigger than a dog. (Some cats are bigger than some dogs, some dogs bigger than some cats). I figured a cat the size of the average dog, is just a bigger cat. (Lynx sized). $\endgroup$
    – Spacemonkey
    Mar 29, 2015 at 5:18

11 Answers 11

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You could simply feed it. Give it food and gradually get it used to humans being closer and closer when it feeds. After it is used to being fed at a touching distance offer it treats if it lets you touch it. Try to touch it, give it a delicious treat, and back off within 15 seconds, so it can predict you mean no harm and that it will get something good in exchange of letting you touch it. Gradually lengthen the time and extent of the touch before treat.

Extend to offering more than one treat with the same terms it is already familiar with. Eventually push the treat offering over 90 seconds.

Finally offer a treat in exchange letting you add the collar. It can skip back safely (and still remember eating the tasty treat!) so if there is trust this should not be an issue.

In the end add collar more than 90 seconds before the treat offering ends so it can't skip back. If the collar is properly designed and comfortable and you have been patient enough in getting the animal used to the idea, this should not be an issue.

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  • $\begingroup$ kindly see D10 probably also A2, thanks and also your noise is so effective you had succeed in preventing all animals from being tricked by the bait. However thanks for your insight. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 28, 2015 at 11:51
  • $\begingroup$ @user6760 Remembered A2, but forgot D10, back to the drawing board... $\endgroup$
    – Ville Niemi
    Mar 28, 2015 at 12:02
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Fence it in!

First calculate its max. run speed, and make a large circular fence around the area it is in. The diameter of the fence > 120 x critter-speed.

90 for its time reset, and 30 in case it senses, sees the future and gets a head start.

The animal cannot escape the contained area. Then it is simply a matter of closing in.

P.S. The cage must be roofed. Not a problem - drop by helicopter.

Edit: Yes, it would be trying to free itself - but twisted steel fencing is very strong - I've known it to even contain wild, thrashing and maddened wild boars when I was a child!

To close in, a spiral fencing held by modified tanks would do - simply moving forward with the tank would close the spiral - since the roof would then be wider than the fence it is no problem.

Tagging is simple - experienced animal handler + collar. Or you could just use a microchip injected under the skin. Or a robot hand like the ones used in car factories. Once you've caught it, the options are limitless!

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  • $\begingroup$ Beautiful plan wisely thought out and how do you tag it?upon realized it is being trap wouldn't it be trying to free itself? $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 28, 2015 at 8:03
  • $\begingroup$ Beautiful wish! Please understand that I can only accept if the answer had met my objective as stated, I must say you are good. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 28, 2015 at 8:26
  • $\begingroup$ @user6760 Haha! I had misunderstood what you meant by tagging - I've updated the answer again. $\endgroup$
    – user8494
    Mar 28, 2015 at 8:28
  • $\begingroup$ fencing is a good choice I liked it, restricting your prey movement and you must have a brilliance idea on how to add a roof using an ultra silent rotary lifter (modified helicopter) with the diameter you mentioned so that it would not disturb the critter (D6 & D7) and the fence must be extremely high so that this critter cannot crawl out (D4) before the capping is done. I purposefully left out A1 so consider this a treat from me. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 28, 2015 at 12:00
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  1. Use clothing that enables you to avoid leaving a scent for this entire operation (haz-mat suit coated in environmental fodder).

  2. Observe animal from a distance for a day, at least, noting sleeping habits, diet, temperament, etc.

  3. Find where it sleeps (as it's a warm-blooded mammal, it most likely utilize a centralized sleeping location).

  4. Test its sleeping patterns. While it is sleeping, systematically come closer at a constant pace until you disturb its rest. Mark the distance (there is no time compensation you need to do. The animal should be aware of its power's limitation, and would therefore run at the first sign of danger rather than time-jump. It would save that ability for emergencies. The 30 second ability would mean that you could have gotten closer for 30 seconds. for this situation, being further away is preferable. Either way, the point at which the animal moves should be perfect)

  5. Create an enclosure nearby which is over twice the distance from the creature's den to the mark you have made. The enclosure must be open on the side facing the current den. The opening must be large enough so as not to 'tip off' the creature. Assuming it is of animal-level intelligence, make it around two to three times the width and height of its body. The door of the enclosure must be as silent as possible, and well-oiled.

  6. Wait for it to leave its den again, then wait at least 90 seconds from that point.

  7. Examine the sleeping area, noting the materials, size, smells, etc.

  8. Take items/pieces of the sleeping area, using gloves and other means to mask scent.

  9. recreate the den in the center of your enclosure, using pieces of the old den.

  10. When the animal leaves its own den again, destroy the sleeping area after 90 seconds, taking more pieces and scattering them in a trail leading to the new den. Use food with the other pieces.

  11. Wait for the animal to follow your trail, leading to the new den, which, as it smells like its old den, and not like you, and contains easily attainable food, the animal will utilize.

  12. wait 90 seconds after the animal has fallen asleep, using the well-oiled and quiet mechanism. The enclosure's size would help avoid spooking the animal. This would make the door seem like no threat to the animal itself, circumventing the 30s power (why be concerned with what's happening 30 seconds from now if it's not a threat)

  13. allow the animal to sleep and awake naturally. Upon it stirring, use the openings in the enclosure to leave food for it.

  14. continue feeding it regularly. Begin to introduce items that contain your smell. Start these items off at the edge of the enclosure, away from the food. This will familiarize the animal with you.

  15. the outer clothing is no longer needed. Discard it. Begin to make appearances as far from the animal as possible, while still being seen. Bring and deposit food at these points. Over time this will let the animal associate you with the food.

  16. behavior allowing, continue to bring the food, but go closer and closer to the animal. Eventually, this will create a bond with the creature.

  17. From this point, follow common animal husbandry behavior until you are able to touch the animal, and then more until you are able to attach the tag secure it. Make sure to retreat each time the animal retreats.

  18. Release the animal.

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  • $\begingroup$ excellent trying to domesticate this critter, item 4 on yr list may not work see D11 again and approaching this critter wearing something that cool to avoid D6 and what about D7. It took some times to domestic dogs so what confident do you have doing the same thing with this critter overnights? I must praise your approach in prioritizing C3 and C5 good effort there. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 28, 2015 at 13:13
  • $\begingroup$ Not over night. It is never stated as to my time frame. The only thing that is important is the reaction of the animal. This may very well take days, or weeks. $\endgroup$
    – FEERspreads
    Mar 28, 2015 at 13:15
  • $\begingroup$ Dolphins sleep for periods of time, but do follow patterns depending on their environment, which is why I have #2. $\endgroup$
    – FEERspreads
    Mar 28, 2015 at 13:16
  • $\begingroup$ The hearing is tested by #4 as well. Even bats have a comfortable distance they will let other creatures approach before reacting. #4 is to find that distance and use it to base the enclosure on. $\endgroup$
    – FEERspreads
    Mar 28, 2015 at 13:18
  • $\begingroup$ #13 should not be viewed as a one time step, but as a rule to be followed for the remainder of the method. $\endgroup$
    – FEERspreads
    Mar 28, 2015 at 13:21
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Build a massive enclosure that will automatically close several minutes after the beast has entered, thus rendering it's clairvoyance useless. Make it large enough with baits so the creature can run around and eat while the enclosure keeps shrinking around it.

Point is to have the enclosure shrink (close doors) either when the beast is distracted or when it can no longer do anything about it. (Too much time has passed)

Once it's space is small enough it can run forever in circles if it wants and you can study it. You can provide food as well to keep it alive.

Expensive in terms of terain, but effective and simple. You could even make the enclosure bit that big but just a maze that takes more than several minutes for the beast to figure it has walked in to a dead end.

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Since it's a sprinter, it's vulnerable to Cursorial Hunting.

The strategy is simple - run it to exhaustion. Humans are built for endurance, this creature isn't. It can reset at most one time without further rest, at that point we can simply run it into the ground. Once it's exhausted and can't go any further, we attach the tracking device and watch it for 2 minutes to verify it can't reset again. Then go away and leave it alone.

30-second future sight isn't incredibly valuable against people who are tracking you, and the 90-second reset isn't sufficient to get away.

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  • $\begingroup$ impressive good job however you are planning to force this critter to activate its second ability twice! see notes thanks. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 28, 2015 at 4:15
  • $\begingroup$ @user6760: I'm assuming it would pass out from exhaustion before it chooses to suicide. $\endgroup$
    – Dan Smolinske
    Mar 28, 2015 at 4:19
  • $\begingroup$ if it is in dire situation and still conscious it will activate its second ability else result in death from exhaustion. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 28, 2015 at 4:22
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I would say there are a set of solutions which all stem around not doing anything that would upset it in a way which could let it squirm out.

The obvious way: Ask it

This is quite the creature, maybe it won't mind having a tracker put on it. Maybe if you ask real nicely, it will be kind and let you nuzzle it and slip a tracker on its neck.

The more traditional way

Handle the problem in two steps. The first step is to contain the beast such that its ability to reverse time by 90s is insufficient for escape. It is trivial to identify what a 90s travel distance is for this creature based on its sprint speed (27m/s * 90s = 2.4km). If all of the traps erected are 2.4km away from it, it cannot possibly escape by reversing time. Now we simply wait, like any trap. Once the critter is in the center, spring it.

Now we've nullified its ability to use its 90s trick, but it can still climb walls and see 30s into the future. We're going to have to nullify those too. Here's where we're going to have to know something about the magic. You say it can climb any wall, but what if the wall doesn't want to play nice? Cover the walls in a material which falls away under the weight of the critter. The critter will effectively have to pull all of this material off before it can make any headway. At this point, human intervention with lasos and whatnot would be powerful because it would be remarkably hard for the critter to clear a path which doesn't also pin down its ability to move away from the lasos.

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  • $\begingroup$ you may have miss my note, the second ability has a cool down of 24 hours so that it will not drain all of its energy, see my notes. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 28, 2015 at 4:25
  • $\begingroup$ I saw the cool down. I was simply being pathologically cautious. You didn't mention its level of intelligence, but I'm assuming such a creature isn't dumb. It's going to learn from what I do to it. I have no intention of giving it an opportunity to learn how I trapped it until it's too late, so I chose a plan of action that ensured that, if it surprised me, it still didn't get free. That gives me time to adapt my plan without letting it sneak free. Time reversal is a tremendously powerful ability, so I wanted to take it off the table first, before tackling its other abilities. $\endgroup$
    – Cort Ammon
    Mar 28, 2015 at 4:47
  • $\begingroup$ I totally agreed that's why I'm betting everything on A2... actually this is a plot for my novel so I'm eager to share your insights. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 28, 2015 at 4:55
  • $\begingroup$ Personally, my hope would be that the eventual solution is actually just to ask it, because I have a preference for books which suggest there's a non-forceful solution to problems! But that's just my personal preference. If you do want to have forceful solutions, it may be beneficial to break this up to best support the interplay. There's s many details we don't know, the best we can really give is just the first round. I simply subscribed to the philosophy "If you swing first, swing hard and connect." $\endgroup$
    – Cort Ammon
    Mar 28, 2015 at 5:02
  • $\begingroup$ Not quite an answer but more of a general solution: any solution which has strong similarities to Chess will be effective because the creatures best abilities depend on its ability to "undo" moves, which can easily be quantified if the solution turns their ability into "undo 3 moves" or something like that. Such a transformation allows the humans to apply game theory to the problem. $\endgroup$
    – Cort Ammon
    Mar 28, 2015 at 5:04
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I'm assuming this creature is of animal intelligence.

In that case then you can use some conventional traps, you don't even need the massive area coverage mentioned in some other answers.

All you need to do is create something like the humane mouse traps that allow the creature in and don't allow it to leave. Additionally those traps need to make the creature want to stay inside them for 90seconds.

So bait the trap with food that the creature really really likes, make sure there is enough food laid out in enough interesting ways that the creature will spend 90s inside the trap getting all of the food.

Once it has done so, just seal the trap and proceed as with any other animal.

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This critter may seem difficult to walk up to and capture, as it has the ability to see 30s into the future, and reset 90s.

Create a gadget that allows you to see 45s into the future and rest 135s, and now you are able to capture it with ease.

Now let me try to justify my answer, clearly the critter can see 30s into the future, and reset 90s, which proves that it is possible. If a critter can do it, people are surely able copy and improve upon it, given enough time. Time is key here though, as well as irrelevant, with the ability to manipulate time being simply possible.

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  • $\begingroup$ kindly refer to C2 and probably C4. Some animals can sense earthquake much earlier before it does and I shall agree with you to adopt this ability but as of now it is still C4 anyway thanks a lot. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Mar 29, 2015 at 4:10
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A simple gate style trap will work fine, just build it big (like a large dog pen sized), large enough it cannot tell it is trapped right away. By the time it realizes it can't get back out its time window has already passed.

a net will also work as long as you don't trigger it right away, use bait and net it when it starts to leave, resetting time will not help since it will just get netted again.

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Build a trap and close it after some time

  1. set up a trap from a container which have door with remote control.
  2. Make sure the creature choose container for eating or resting on a regular manner.
  3. Close the door quitely and remotely when creature engrossed in eating/resting

The main idea is the creature become aware of trapping after the moment it actually trapped so it prediction and time shifting abilities won't help.

To increase chances you could set up a dozen of such containers with meal and another dozen with such interior that creature like to rest.

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Build a trap which is one way in and one way out, builded in such a way that the critter use more than 90 seconds to traverse it and at the other hand has an automatic mechanism to put the collar on the critter.

To close the door use a sensor that once activated close the door after 80 seconds (so the critter will not see this happening while entering the trap) when probably the critter is more than 30 seconds away from the door (or you can put some fake door to confuse it a little). If the door make little sound while closing, there are chances that the critter will not note it.

If the trap is big enough and the only exit is the one with the collar trap, its second ability is nullified since once it spend more than 90 seconds in the trap, just out of curiosity or by some food bait, also a time reset leave it in the trap.

Soon enough it will find the exit and also using its first ability it will see that the collar will not do any immediate harm to him (which is what you want after all) and he will exit and your collar is attached to the critter.

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