Monday 1 February 2016

The Dutch Are Using Eagles To Pluck Drones From The Sky

Guard From Above / Via youtube.com

That animals hate drones seems a universal truth. Dogs chase them and occasionally pluck them from the sky with great slobbery pleasure. Chimpanzees cobble together crude instruments with which to thunderously swat them to the ground.

But no creature harbors as much scorn for quadcopters as the bird of prey — specifically the eagle, which seems to view drones as a personal affront. And the Dutch are using that to their advantage. The Dutch National Police has partnered with raptor-training company Guard From Above to see if eagles can be taught to intercept drones. Evidently, they can. And when they do, it looks something like this:

Via youtube.com

It's not yet clear how safe this practice is for the eagles involved or how practical it might be as an anti-drone solution. That said, eagles are clearly quite skilled at mid-air intercepts and downing airborne prey, so there is some promise here — as silly as the experiment might seem.

Tests are taking place over the next few months to assess just how effective raptor-based drone hunting can be for local law enforcement. But even anti-drone eagles prove to be an ornithological pipe dream, the Dutch have given us the gift of this eagle murdering a DJI Phantom. And for that we can all be thankful.