Drones: When eagles snare

With one of Europe’s major air hubs within its borders, the Netherlands is getting increasingly exercised by the problem of illegally-operated drones.
The unmanned aircraft are a hooligan – or even a terrorist’s – dream and the Netherlands Police have been racking their collective brains on how best to combat this threat from the sky. Shooting them down could be a bit risky in such a crowded piece of airspace. Nor is chasing them with a butterfly net likely to work, given the heights these machines can fly at.
No, the best way to combat an illegal flying machine is to use another flying object – but one supplied by Mother Nature, the Police concluded.
With a wingspan of up to 2.3 metres and fearsome talons, Eagles could in fact have been purpose-designed to bring down the pesky flying machines. Four juveniles have been trained up for their hunter-killer mission at an airbase and they have already notched up an 80% success rate.
There is the question of motivation. The eagles have little use for an inedible drone, even one with a price tag of thousands of euros, but they are rewarded with a piece of meat after each successful capture.