A Dutch Company Is Training ‘Low-Tech’ Eagles to Fight Drones

People are always getting worked up and anxious over whether new technology will make them obsolete. This is precisely what an eagle does not worry about. Not just because of their avian consciousness, but, also, the role they might one day play in fighting drones.
A duo of Dutch men who run the company Guard From Above have teamed up with police in the Netherlands to train eagles to intercept drones, the New York Times reports. The idea is that drones carrying contraband, conducting surveillance, or flying in a dangerous manner can be snatched up in the talons of a well-taught hunting bird and brought to the ground. Eagles could be safe alternative—preferable, for instance, to shooting the drone out of the air—because they probably wouldn’t crash land (they’re birds), nor would they be set off course due to strong winds.
Scotland Yard has also expressed interest in using birds to take down drones, while Toyko police have experimented with capturing rogue drones in flying, robotic nets.
In an interview with the Times, the project’s creator Sjoerd Hoogendoorn referred to the eagles as, “a low-tech solution to a high-tech problem,” and suggested this is part of what attracted authorities to the strategy.
This project also makes sense, according to Mark Wiebes, a detective chief superintendent in the Dutch police, because eagles are already used at some airports to scare away other birds that might get sucked into the planes’ engines.