Interactions between Wedge-tailed Eagles and drones are becoming more frequent as humans intensify our land use and make increasing use of aerial vehicles for survey work. In the last few weeks, many people have sent me a link to this ABC News article which featured the above image, taken by Leigh Nairn while using a drone to taking photos of his farming activities, of an eagle just before it attacked the camera. Today I received a timely call from the ABC who were keen for my opinion about possible impacts of such attacks to the eagles, which came just as I was driving to the vet with the carcass of Walyunga, a Perth-born Wedge-tail that flew to the Pilbara region less than a month after beginning juvenile dispersal. Walyunga died suddenly and the evidence suggests this was because his wing feathers were chopped by a small, fast-spinning rotor-blade, like that on many drones (i.e. those larger and with more blades than the typical commercial example of a DJI Phantom or similar, which is what most people imagine when they think of a drone). As I mentioned to the ABC, it's not only drone operators who suffer losses as a result of these interactions, and it places emphasis on the importance of research that may potentially determine ways to minimise their occurrence. Part of my PhD research aims to investigate 3-dimensional space use of territorial adult eagles, but a big gap at this moment is funding. I'm applying for grants but am always keen to hear from anyone that may wish to sponsor my research. If this is you, please email me!
You can read more about tracking eagles using GPS/Satellite technology at the Wedge-tailed Eagle Tracking website here, and also listen to the interview on the ABC's Country Hour website here (the segment on eagles and drones starts at 32 minutes). Let's hope we are able to combine eagle tracking and drone operations to help find a solution to this human / wildlife conflict.
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