Eagles, who have already proven themselves to be predisposed to anti-drone tomfoolery, are now being trained by police to take down illegal drones. Law enforcement officials in the Netherlands have collaborated with Guard From Above to start turning unwitting eagles into drone-fighting cops, the Verge reports. As the footage above makes strikingly clear, career-seeking eagles all across the globe obviously have an exciting new line of work to consider.
Of course, capturing an in-motion drone presents a unique set of difficulties and a remarkably high chance of injury. When humans try to capture drones with their bare hands, stuff like this happens. Though a similar chance of bloody misfortune hasn't been discussed in detail by Dutch officials just yet, local experts are already working on ways to offer at least some form of protection for this burgeoning fleet of drone-battling eagles. "The bird sees the drone as prey and takes it to a safe place, a place where there are no other birds or people," a project spokesperson tells the Register.
Tokyo made waves of their own back in December with the debut of their interceptor drone, i.e. something that is in fact not an eagle. "Terrorist attacks using drones carrying explosives are a possibility," a spokesperson for Tokyo police told Asahi Shimbun. "We hope to defend the nation’s functions with the worst-case scenario in mind."
Stay brave, eagles.
