Ride the Lightning

Dutch Police Teach Eagles to Hunt Drones

February 4, 2016

Yes, I know I seem fixated on drones this week. But I couldn't resist a story from IEEE Spectrum about how the Dutch police are training eagles to take down drones. Rather a low tech solution to a high tech problem, but it has its appeal.

The video embedded in the story is in Dutch, which made much of it mysterious to me. However, the fact that the eagle wanted to kill the drone was eminently clear. The Dutch police have partnered with Guard From Above, a raptor training company to see if eagles could be intelligent, adaptive anti-drone weapons.

It appears that most birds of prey instinctively have a bad reaction to drones, so training them to destroy them is light duty. They readily snatch the drone from the sky and find a safe area away from people where they can try to take a couple of bites out of the drone. Since drones are not generally tasty, the trainers reward them with more delectable treats.

The Dutch police are studying whether to use the eagles as drone hunters – no decision will be made for a few months.

Being a tree hugger (to the hysterical laughter of my children, I fretted that my son-in-law's Betta fish would be lonely), I worried a bit about the safety of the eagles. But if you have ever seen an eagle's talons, they are incredibly well-protected which allows eagles to overpower large and dangerous prey. Mind you, I suspect that certain drones might be equipped with weapons dangerous to both humans and birds of prey so I am still worried for our eagle drone hunters.

But I like the creativity of the Dutch police – and I know a number of you will be telling your friends the riveting story of eagles being used as drone interceptors. There's a Hollywood scene in there somewhere.

Hat tip to Jen Kubal.

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