Environment

Quad-engine drones on one side, American oystercatchers on the other: a new battle between man and nature has just begun.

The New York sky has become the scene of a new war (one that we could have done without). Since police drones were deployed, particularly along the seashore, to help swimmers in distress and monitor the presence of sharks, American oystercatchers, a species of bird with a long orange beak and black and white plumage, have been living under threat. As Korii points out, the technology of the sky, being capable of dropping buoys to swimmers in difficulty, has not yet saved any lives but has indeed attracted the wrath of American oystercatchers.

David Bird, professor of wildlife biology at McGill University in Montreal, is rather alarming. He explains, among other things, that drones could cause “a stress reaction” in the long-beaked birds and disrupt or even modify their behavior. Frightened, they could “flee the beach and abandon their eggs, as several thousand elegant terns did after a drone crash recently in San Diego,” reports the AP news agency, relayed by Korii. It's worth noting that the American oystercatcher is an endangered species.

According to the professor of wildlife biology, if the birds “abandon their nests because of drones, it would be a disaster.” If American oystercatchers have, to date, only swooped down on police drones, much more serious situations could be to be deplored.

(MH with AsD - Source: Korii - Illustration: Unsplash)