Sure, technology is great and all, but usually, that privilege is solely for human use. The fact of that matter is that our advances in technology mean regression for most of the world’s wildlife. However, animals are fighting back.
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Photo: OpexNews / Twitter
A recent video from out in Australia, posted by a YouTube account by the name of ‘Ben in Canberra’, in which a raven goes ballistic over a food and beverage delivery drone, shows exactly what I’m talking about. And no, this isn’t happening because animals may fear a Terminator Skynet scenario but rather because of some rather natural or normal causes.
Since their appearance on the open market, drones have been bringing countless smiles and hours of fun into people's lives. Heck, some drones are even used to deliver parcels, packages, and even aid in warfare, where it all started. But there seems to be a downside to our joy; we are affecting the natural environment as we know it.
As most pilots of drones and the likes know, you normally don’t have any issue with the local wildlife attacking your drone or McDonald’s Happy Meal. However, during some natural cycles such as mating and rearing of chicks, birds will become rather territorial and defensive of their asserted grounds, even going as far as risking their lives to fight off these buzzing UFOs.
Photo: A2Z Drone Delivery / YouTube Screenshot
In the video below, a drone, delivering what is presumed to be coffee, is whirring about in a local Canberra neighborhood. Even over the video, the insistent sound of tiny propellors whirring about at unimaginable RPMs covers nearly all other sounds in the video, except some very unhappy squawking. Can you imagine what a drone sounds like to a bird or an eagle, for that matter?
Well, just as you might expect, it caused the Canberra raven to lose its wits and go ballistic over the whirring drone, in the process, just shaking up the machine and not causing any serious damage as the package was successfully delivered, and the drone went about its day.
However, this isn’t the first incident of its kind, as others have been recorded since the first days of drone use. Even recently, according to CBS NEWS, another incident involving a Bald Eagle and a drone has landed the drone on the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Photo: Matternet
But, humans are cunning creatures, and ever since all this began, we have actually devised a way around this problem. Instead of seeing birds such as ravens, eagles, and even hawks as the foe, maybe they could be viewed as an ally and trained to work for us and not against us.
With that in mind, the Dutch Police announced that a few years ago, they would train eagles to fight against a rising wave of unlicensed drone flights and activity. What, you thought people were just delivering coffee with these things? There's just so much you can do with a drone and a camera, and it's scary. Close behind the Dutch, the French Army, too, added a similar regiment to their forces.
If we keep this sort of tactic up, we’ll be using hawks for food delivery instead of drones. Wait, never mind, that’s been tried and tested, and we turned to drones after. One thing is certain, if humans and animals are to co-exist, we are the ones that need to make that change. Maybe some drone flight regulations during breeding seasons. I don’t know. I’m just brainstorming here.
A bit of a nomad at heart (being born in Europe and raised in several places in the USA), Cristian is enamored with travel trailers, campers and bikes. He also tests and writes about urban means of transportation like scooters, mopeds and e-bikes (when he's not busy hosting our video stories and guides). Full profile
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