Unmanned aerial vehicles prove to be no match for Mother Nature’s high-flying predators.
Australia – Eagles, those aerial takedown artists, are at it again. This time, they’ve taken out nearly all of the unmanned aerial vehicles dispatched to fly over mining lands in western Australia.
According to ABC Science, wedge-tailed eagles are batting nearly 1.000 in the skies near the country’s mining town of Kambalda. All told, out of 10 drones to take to the air, nine have been sent to the ground by the eagles.
Thus far, the site reports, South Africa’s Gold Fields, which has mining concerns in the area, has spent some $100,000 on replacement drones.
The company uses the drones as surveyors. The flying eyes take high-resolution photographs and use them to create contour maps for future mining forays.
Drones in the area have even been attacked by two eagles at once, and efforts to disguise the machines as other eagles have not fared well.
Eagles Trained to Intercept Drones in Denmark
Eagles far and wide seem to have become mortal enemies of drones (not far behind are chimps, which have also gotten into the drone-swatting act). So much so that the high-flying predators have even gained the notice of law enforcement. Earlier this year, Dutch police began training eagles to take out suspicious drones spotted flying in no-go places.
This footage, shot by Melbourne Aerial Videos in 2015, shows what it looks like, from a drone’s-eye-view, to have the business end of a territorial eagle bearing down on you.