Just the News
After trying such conventional methods as dogs, fireworks and weather radar, the Defense Department is deploying robots – in the form of wild coyotes – to try to scare away birds at miliary airfields that get sucked into aircraft jet engines, causing damage and sometimes even fatal crashes.
The development of the prototype robots – otherwise known as drones, unmanned ground vehicles or simply “Coyote Rovers” – is being led by the Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center.
“They basically have the same functionality as any other drone,” Shea Hammond, an ERDC research biologist, recently told The Army Times.“
He also said they can be programmed to target specific areas while avoiding others, like airstrips, and have recharging stations so they can “have utility for multiple days.” More
If it looks like a coyote and quacks like a duck it gotta be DARPA
Very interesting articles! When I first saw the photos of those low-tech coyote figures mounted on four-wheel glorified go-karts, my first thought was they need to get in touch with Boston Dynamics for a full-fledged quadruped robot.
But it turns out that they tried that first but the BD robots were too slow and didn’t scare the wildlife much. The ones they’re using now are MUCH cheaper to buy and operate and move fast enough to actually scare the birds away.
The other thing I found interesting was the savings on landscape maintenance, but you ought to go read the article for the details on that.
Uncle Al,
You mean they cut the grass and edge too?
Why don’t they install windmills and solar?
My dad lived on a golf course and was involved in the governing body. An elderly lady slid on goose crap into a water hazard and couldn’t get out until rescued. He mentioned it to me and I told him to get some dead goose decoys from Mack’s Prairie Wings and throw them in there and that will solve the problem.
If you are hunting pot holes and don’t want the geese landing in ponds you don’t have your blind set up on you just put dead goose decoys in them and that takes care of it.
“Why don’t they install windmills and solar?”
That would be the way to go if they wanted to kill them, but I think they just want to shoo them away for now…
Plastic coyotes on Hot Wheels. WOW. And to think a Regular Joe RC Company invented them and not some Leftist University which would have over-engineered them so they would have cost over a Million a piece instead of the $2,300.00 the RC Company can build them for.
JDHasty Sunday, 13 July 2025, 15:51 at 3:51 pm
Brilliant solution. Looks like that outfitter isn’t selling them any more, but I could find them elsewhere.
Low cost solution, low effort to use. Double plus good.
Private FC Wiley, reporting for duty, Sir.