Police Using Eagles to Hunt Drones Via Guard From Above

During a tour of Reindeer Farm in Butte, Alaska, they’ll tell you that the top threat to their herd isn’t bears, wolves or Santa desperately looking for replacements.

It’s eagles.

Eagles, if you weren’t aware, are the apex predator of the avian world. They are fast, they are strong and their vision is near X-ray-like in its acuity. In short, eagles are metal AF and willing to destroy just about anything in their path, no matter how big or small it may be.

Which is why a Dutch company has started training them to go after a very unnatural type of prey: drones.

Guard From Above views training eagles to intercept drones being used as criminal or terrorist tools as a “low-tech solution for a high-tech problem,” and apparently has been able to convince Dutch police of the same virtue. The country’s law enforcement officers have begun using eagles supplied by the company to patrol airports and other sensitive areas where drones could pose a threat, and they’ve also purchased four sea eagle chicks which will join the Dutch “flying squad” when they mature next summer, according to The Guardian.

“In the past few years Guard From Above has perfected the techniques of intercepting drones with different kinds and sizes of birds of prey,” CEO Sjoerd Hoogendoorn said in a release. “We are the world’s first company that can bring this unique solution to the market.”

If you’d like to preorder one of the birds, that’s actually a thing. Drop ‘em a line. They’re very talon-ted.