Dutch Police Are Training Eagles to Battle Rogue Aerial Drones, Be Our Saviors

If they work for the police, are they legal eagles?
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So, Drones vs. Eagles: weird Plants vs. Zombies knockoff or actual thing happening in the Netherlands? If you answered, “Probably neither of those,” you’re partially right. Dutch police really are training eagles to take law-breaking drones out of the sky. Stephen Colbert must be so proud—or disappointed it’s not happening in America.

Though you may not understand what’s being said in the video above, the language of majestic eagles fighting for our freedom is universal. This isn’t the first of the solutions we’ve seen to the problem of enforcing drone regulations, which have included literal sky nets, but it looks pretty effective. You can clearly see the eagle take out the unsuspecting robot with ease, and then watch as its natural instinct to bring its prey back home and lord over its conquest take over.

It’ll probably chew up the robot and feed the metallic guts to its young, giving them a taste for machines and spawning future generations of humanity defenders. (Or that’s not how biology works, and birds don’t eat plastic and circuit boards.) Of course, drones made of tougher stuff than the ones used in the video could pose a danger to the birds, so it’s good that they’re thinking of ways to give the eagles a little extra battle armor to keep them safe.

It also puts us way behind in the weaponized eagle arms race. Get it together, America! I’m going to need to see this avenging our skies:

colberteagle

(via The Verge)

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Dan Van Winkle
Dan Van Winkle (he) is an editor and manager who has been working in digital media since 2013, first at now-defunct Geekosystem (RIP), and then at The Mary Sue starting in 2014, specializing in gaming, science, and technology. Outside of his professional experience, he has been active in video game modding and development as a hobby for many years. He lives in North Carolina with Lisa Brown (his wife) and Liz Lemon (their dog), both of whom are the best, and you will regret challenging him at Smash Bros.