It seems that the seaside chook inhabitants of New York Metropolis is completely fed up with a just lately deployed armada of police drones which might be encroaching on their territory. A report from the Related Press describes repeated “swarming” incidents through which the indignant shorebirds have dive-bombed the flying robots in an try to expel them from their residence.
Earlier this yr, the NYPD made the questionable resolution to start deploying drones on the metropolis’s seashores. The purpose was to permit them to seek for sharks (in order to warn beachgoers and keep away from a Jaws-type state of affairs) and likewise to assist swimmers who could be struggling, and who have been out of attain of the native lifeguard. The plan, apparently, was to have the robots fly over drowning swimmers and drop flotation units on their heads.
Whereas the drones have to this point saved zero human lives, they’ve managed to noticeably agitate the native chook inhabitants, which has been repeatedly seen “swarming” and dive-bombing the flying robots. The AP quotes a number of wildlife teachers and professionals, most of whom appear to suppose that the drones are having some type of hostile impact on the seaside birds. Specialists say the birds might even see the robots as an invasive species, one that could be a risk to their offspring.
Veronica Welsh, a wildlife skilled on the metropolis’s Parks Division, instructed the outlet that the birds are “very irritated by the drones” and “will fly at it, they’ll swoop at it, they’ll be vocalizing…They suppose they’re defending their chicks from a predator.”
The article additionally quotes a wildlife biology professor from McGill College who, fairly amazingly, is known as David Hen. Hen, the chook professor, tells us that the birds in query, identified technically as American oystercatchers, may be triggered by the flying robots into having a “stress response,” which, he mentioned, may trigger them to “flee the seaside and abandon their eggs, as a number of thousand elegant terns did following a recent drone crash in San Diego.”
Oystercatchers, the native populations of which primarily nest on Rockaway seaside, “are extremely endangered” mentioned Hen, entire additionally added that if “they abandon their nests due to the drones, that will be a catastrophe.”
Gizmodo reached out to the NYPD for extra data on its drone program however didn’t obtain an instantaneous response.
Replace, July 12, 3:46 p.m. ET: We now have up to date this submit to replicate the truth that the birds on this story should not, in reality, seagulls. We remorse the error, but additionally I’m not an ornithologist, individuals.
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