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Innovation

Dutch police train eagles to fight illegal drones (Video)

Animal rights activists may not be thrilled, but training group believes eagles are well-suited to drone capture.
Written by Greg Nichols, Contributing Writer

In December we learned that Japanese police have been testing a novel method to deter reckless or illegal drone flying.

Taking a page from Elmer Fudd, Tokyo cops rigged a big net to a large multicopter. Drones caught up in the dragnet are ferried back to authorities, where they're confiscated.

Here's video:

Not to be outdone, the Dutch police are reportedly looking at an even stranger option: birds of prey.

According to IEEE Spectrum, which first reported the story:

The Dutch police have partnered with Guard From Above, a raptor training company based in The Hague, to determine whether eagles could be used as intelligent, adaptive anti-drone weapon systems. The eagles are specially trained to identify and capture drones.

That's right, eagles. Why oh why didn't the old Stephen Colbert think of this first?


Here's Guard from Above's response about the potential danger to the birds:

IS IT DANGEROUS FOR THE BIRDS?
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 Scientifi c 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.
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