News
News Categories

The Dutch are training eagles to take drones down

By Kenny Yeo - on 3 Feb 2016, 10:53am

The Dutch are training eagles to take drones down

Probably the coolest thing you'll see today.

Drones are a problem in many areas and to tackle them, the Dutch National Police are turning to mother nature, specifically large birds of prey.

Drone use has become widespread over the past couple of years thanks to their falling prices. As a result of this as well as a lack of strict regulations, we now face the problem of drones flying in unauthorized spaces and also unsafe operation of drones.

To tackle this, the Dutch National Police is working with a private firm called Guard from Above to evaluate the feasibility of using large birds of prey, such as eagles, to take down drones.

As you can see from the GIF above and the video below, eagles are extremely competent at taking down drones. After all, this is what most of them do in the wild when taking down other birds for food. 

They are also well equipped for the job, thanks to their massive talons, incredible eyesight and amazing agility.

However, some are concerned that large drones could potentially injure these magnificent birds. In response, Guard from Above issued the following statement:

In nature, birds of prey often overpower large and dangerous prey. Their talons have scales, which protect them, naturally, from their victims’ bites. Of course, we are continuously investigating any extra possible protective measures we can take in order to protect our birds.

The Dutch National Police has asked the Dutch Organization for Applied Scientifiic Research (TNO) to research the possible impact on the birds’ claws. The results are not yet known. We are working closely with the Dutch National Police on the development of our services.

At this point, there's no telling if eagles would actually really be used to take down drones. But if it does come to fruition, we salute the Dutch for their bold and out of the box thinking! 

Source: IEEE Spectrum

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.