Video Of The Day: Watch An Eagle Take Out A Drone

Published February 5, 2016
Updated January 22, 2018

Drones can cause havoc if they're in the wrong hands. With their new drone-hunting eagles, Dutch police have come up with a novel and effective solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HifO-ebmE1s

You might not own any of the 181,000 registered drones in America, but you probably know what they’re capable of. Whether it’s something as innocuous as taking stunning aerial photos of cities, or something as morally questionable as vague military airstrikes, drones have now become a staple of everyday conversation.

The only problem is that people haven’t quite figured out how to appropriately deal with unwanted drones flying overhead. From signal jammers, to sending interceptor drones to do battle with the rogue drones, to city government approved drone-shooting licenses, all of the current methods of controlling drones have been too complex without providing a feasible solution. But sometimes, mother nature provides the best and simplest answer: In this case, eagles.

The Dutch National Police have joined forces with a raptor training company ominously named Guard From Above to train drone-hunting eagles. The birds identify the drone, swoop in for the snatch and then bring it to the ground. Judging from the training video they released, eagles seem like the natural answer to a very unnatural problem.

Granted, the tests are taking place in an isolated room with zero distractions, so the Dutch police still have some work to do to figure out how the eagles would perform in a crowded environment. That means several more months of tests, and hopefully, several more videos of eagle takedowns.

author
Nickolaus Hines
author
Nickolaus Hines graduated with a Bachelor's in journalism from Auburn University, and his writing has appeared in Men's Journal, Inverse, and VinePair.
editor
John Kuroski
editor
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.