Drones are becoming a problem for Britain’s correctional facilities. Luckily, the minister in charge of those prisons has a potential solution: eagles. These raptors are fast becoming the drone elimination system of choice.
Prisons Minister Sam Gyimah said during a meeting at the House of Commons on Tuesday that he is “keeping a close eye on what’s happening in Holland, where they’re using eagles to stop drones,” in response to prisoners smuggling contraband via consumer UAVs.
Gyimah was referring to a program being tested by Dutch police that tasks specially trained bald eagles with taking down suspicious drones without harming any bystanders in the process.
The program starts with eagle chicks being taught to redirect their predatory instincts towards drones, with the idea being that police would be able to have their feathered UAV deterrents snatch any odd drones out of the sky and deposit them safely on the streets below.
The eagles aren’t harmed in the process: Evolution has given them strong jaws and talons that haven’t been harmed during any of the tests designed to gauge their small drone-hunting capabilities.
Metropolitan Police said after the first footage of eagles hunting drones was published that the organization would “of course be looking at the use of eagles by the Dutch police.”
Now the office in charge of the UK’s prisons is also interested in these eagles. It seems like it’s only a matter of time until more people use these millennia-old birds of prey to solve a very modern problem. Until that day, though, here’s another video of the drone hunters in action:
