Culture
The Dutch Police Are Training Eagles To Take Down Drones
In the battle between unmanned vehicles and birds of prey, talons win every time.
Birds may actually be man’s best friend: Pigeons can now diagnose cancer, vultures are helping Peru fix its garbage problem, and eagles in London offered a real bird’s-eye view of the city. And in birds’ latest bid to win us over, eagles have now teamed up with police in the Netherlands to take out rogue drones.
Crashes there involving drones have been on the rise, with the Dutch police receiving 27 reports by mid-2015. Eleven of those incidents involved drones landing too close to people or buildings. That’s a sharp spike from 2013, when only 15 incidents were reported for the entire year.