Scientists began using birds as drones

The journal PNAS has published a new article highlighting new research by Henry Weimerschkirch and

employees of the French National Centerscientific research. As part of the study, scientists used albatrosses as reconnaissance drones, which made it possible to identify and catch poachers at sea.

It is noted that scientists did not just choosenamely albatrosses. Thus, this genus is able to discern a ship at a distance of several tens of kilometers. In addition, albatrosses are also characterized by curiosity, due to which they always fly closer to ships. Thus, the birds were equipped with miniature devices, including a GPS sensor for geolocation identification, a communication system with the main vessel and a ship radio receiver, thanks to which even from a short distance it is possible to register the radar signal of the poachers’ vessel, which turned them into a kind of “drones”.

The study involved order169 equipped albatrosses, with the help of which scientists checked the situation in remote regions of the ocean. So, from November 2018 to May last year, birds were monitored for 47 million km² of ocean surface, which is about 353 “radar contacts”.