Canadian City Uses Drone To Chase Off Geese 196
LeadSongDog writes "The Ottawa Citizen reports on an enterprising private contractor who has been hired by a city government in Canada to drive geese off its island beaches using a small, remote-controlled drone. 'It’s proving amazingly effective, said Orléans Coun. Bob Monette. The place used to be haunted by as many as 140 geese, which can eat several pounds of grass in a day and poop out nearly as much in waste. “Now we’re down to anywhere from 15 to 20 on a daily basis,” Monette said. The weapon the city’s deployed is a “hexcopter,” a remote-controlled chopper with rotors that can hover, soar, circle and — most importantly — scoot along just above the ground, scaring the bejesus out of dozing geese. It’s operated by contractor Steve Wambolt, a former IT worker who launched his own business after one too many layoffs. “When he takes it out, they put their backs up straight and they’re watching,” Monette said. “When he starts it and it goes up off the ground, they sort of walk into a formation, and as soon as it starts moving, they all take off and they don’t come back until the next day.”'"
Re:Unconstitutional Drone Strike on Canadian Geese (Score:3, Informative)
I don't know how many of the geese get up to Alaska, but huge sections of Canada become essentially overrun with Geese.
Managing where they go can be a huge problem and a nuisance.
I worked at a building once where the geese would nest in the medians in the parking lot. They'd routinely attack people going to and from their cars. I've seen huge sections of parks which are essentially covered in green goose-shit and which are unusable (and which can also be a health hazard).
We do respect the migration, and as migratory birds they are protected -- but that doesn't mean that every damned place that literally hundreds (or thousands, or 10's of thousands) of geese move into can be left to have them take over.
Sometimes, the sheer scale of the mess which can be caused by these things means you need to find ways to convince them to find another place to be.
Re:Unconstitutional Drone Strikes on Canindian Gee (Score:5, Informative)
While amusing in this case, this treaty would likely not apply.
The statute in the treaty makes it unlawful without a waiver to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill or sell birds listed therein ("migratory birds"). This includes the Canadian Goose. Piloting a drone into the middle of a stationary flock of geese constitutes none of these things. If the drone operator actually followed the birds, then yes, that would be "pursuing", but simply scaring the birds by flying into the midst of them as they are eating and pooping and doing other bird things wouldn't break the treaty, as far as I can tell.
Re:"Drone" vs "R/C Plane"? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Unconstitutional Drone Strike on Canadian Geese (Score:4, Informative)
The only place in Alaska that geese stay year-round is near Juneau, as far as I know. But in places where they do stay year-round, like further down the coast, they can be a real pain. Their year-round residency is because of human habitat modification, making open green lawns that are highly appealing to them. They should be migrating but, like hummingbirds, decide to stay all year because of the easy food.