The Dutch police are training eagles to take down drones

Drones are very cheap and can also be incredibly dangerous, so the Dutch police have been testing ways to take them down in an emergency – one of them involves eagles, reports IEEE Spectrum.

Nets and electronic jammers have been tested as ways of taking out a drone, but eagles certainly look the most impressive.

It’s reported that the Dutch police have partnered with Guard From Above, a raptor training company based in Denmark, to determine whether eagles could be used as intelligent, adaptive anti-drone weapon systems.

Obviously the safety of the eagles is very important, according to The Verge one of the handlers in the video says that the scales on the eagle’s legs and feet keeps them safe, but also mentions the possibility of creating some sort of extra protection for them.

According to the Dutch Police, these tests should last a few months – at which point they’ll decide whether using the eagles in this way is an effective and appropriate means of preventing unwanted drone use.

It seems that eagles and drones are natural enemies anyway – here’s a clip of a Wedge-Tailed eagle in Australia punching a drone out of the sky.