Flapping mad. :-D

Falcon-like flapping drone drives birds away from strawberry crops in Qld trial.

A drone mimicking a peregrine falcon is giving hope to farmers losing hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of strawberries to ravenous rainbow lorikeets.

The robotic raptor has the same size, silhouette and flight patterns of the world's fastest bird.

It flaps flexible polyfoam wings during 15-minute windows on rechargeable batteries.

Launched with an overarm throw, the RoBird weighs less than a kilogram and was designed to protect food crops without harming native wildlife.

"We're only hazing or going after the birds that the farmers know eat the crops, in this case rainbow lorikeets and cockatoos," drone pilot Harry Lagastes said......

Cheers.

We're alive again!

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Grant
Darwin NT

A drone mimicking a peregrine falcon is giving hope to farmers losing hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of strawberries to ravenous rainbow lorikeets.

In Germany, more precise the 'Börde region', an agricultural stronghold with our most fertile soil, situated in Northern part of Saxony-Anhalt, is the home to the largest remaining habitat of the common hamster, an endangered species. Its survival is threatened by modern, highly efficient combine harvesters. These machines nowadays thresh grain so thoroughly from ears that nothing is left for hamsters, which rely on 'lost' corn to gather winter stores in their underground burrows.

To protect hamsters, farmers could be persuaded to leave a number of small "islands" of crops standing in the fields—small patches that are not harvested.

I once saw two Rainbow Lorikeets in a palm tree in Fremantle, WA. I don't know if these birds are rare. Couldn't the farmers leave a few strawberries for these cute parrots instead of chasing them away with high-tech drones?

You can even buy fluffy Kangaroo fur in souvenir shops in Australia. I was shocked to find out that many of these cute animals end as bedside carpets...

I once saw two Rainbow Lorikeets in a palm tree in Fremantle, WA. I don't know if these birds are rare. Couldn't the farmers leave a few strawberries for these cute parrots instead of chasing them away with high-tech drones?

Think mouse plague.

A good season of rain will provide plenty of feed for the birds, so they breed.
Then things become dry, not much feed left, lots of birds, so they hit the crops- and they can wipe them out.

You can even buy fluffy Kangaroo fur in souvenir shops in Australia. I was shocked to find out that many of these cute animals end as bedside carpets...

Many of us feel the same about kangaroos as many people in cities feel about pigeons.
Just another pest.

The problem with kangaroos is that if there is water, they will breed. Even if there is no feed, they will still breed. So even if the grazier allows for a certain number of head of livestock per acre, they also need to allow of the number of roos.
And even then, the buggers keep on breeding, so even after destocking in order to try to protect the pastures, the kangaroos eat pretty much all the ground cover, leaving just dirt and dust to blow away in the wind. And, of course, wash away when it finally rains again- often massive rains and huge flooding. Just having a bit of rain here and there to give the ground cover a chance to grow is just too much to hope for.


Not to mention the amount of work they make for panel beaters repairing vehicles that have hit the stupid buggers as they jump out in front you on the roads (you can't imagine my disappointment after watching years of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo as a kid, to realise that kangaroos are dumber than the dumbest chicken).

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Grant
Darwin NT

Not to mention the amount of work they make for panel beaters repairing vehicles that have hit the stupid buggers as they jump out in front you on the roads

That just goes to prove that the kangaroos are being sponsored by the panel beaters trade guild ;-)

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Not to mention the amount of work they make for panel beaters repairing vehicles that have hit the stupid buggers as they jump out in front you on the roads (you can't imagine my disappointment after watching years of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo as a kid, to realise that kangaroos are dumber than the dumbest chicken).

Huuuh? You don't have wildlife fences and separate wildlife crossing bridges along all the major highways? I think we urgently need to inform our concerned wildlife conservationists about the scandalous conditions in Australia.

...just kidding.

Like the 6 we have in Texas (where the wildlife doesn't always use them)?

6 cool crossings and corridors helping Texas wildlife stay wild
Notable pathways that protect animals as they move from place to place

Understand about the pest problem. Years back on a different forum and I talked with a guy about going out and destocking roos.

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Years ago, like the mid-90s, I worked with the State Park Department, Caltrans, and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to raise the funds and acquire land to create a wildlife corridor connecting the coast to the mountains inland. Park of the project included a freeway overpass so the animals could cross under the freeway. Well, it seems that local mountain lions decided they wanted to cross over the freeway, not under it. A couple lions were killed trying that, so now they are building a new bridge over the freeway. I am not part of it anymore. But it would still be fun to drive down and see what they are doing with the corridor I helped create.

I had a fun time driving my jeep along the mountain ridges with the head of State Parks and the Lieutenant Governor. There were places I drove that made them turn white. And to be honest, I was worried about rolling a couple of times too.

I lost count of the number of dead 'roos by the road on my trip today with the addition of 1 cow, a deer, a koala plus a few foxes.

Over the years my wagon is 7 and 'roos 0. When they jump in front of me I floor the fuel pedal lifting the car's front up and driving straight through (or over) the blighters as they always put their heads down before impact.

Cheers.

I was lucky the time i hit a roo in my little Suzuki Swift ('89 model, not like the current ones).
I got hard on the brakes as the idiot came back across the road, putting the front of the car way down low- knocked it's legs out from underneath it, and it managed to roll over the bonnet, up the other side of the windscreen and off the side of the car.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Ah, so that’s why they prefer the big U.S. pickups there now. That way, kangaroos can’t roll over the bonnet or crash into the windscreen anymore.

We're back, but how long for this time?

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Grant
Darwin NT

We're back, but how long for this time?

Probably until the next bot / scraping attack finds a way to override the new protection implementations.

And then we weren't back, and now we are again.

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Grant
Darwin NT

And then we weren't back, and now we are again.

In California, they switched to a "supply-driven power grid." The webserver will run when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining.

Ooh... just a joke. No political discussion intended...

Oh sh1t!
Authorities investigate Taco Bell and lettuce as cyclosporiasis outbreak surges

Federal and state health officials are investigating whether Taco Bell restaurants played a role in one of the largest U.S. outbreaks of a gastrointestinal illness caused by a parasite that contaminates fresh produce, according to two individuals familiar with the investigation.

The two individuals spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing into the outbreak of the infection, which can cause days of diarrhea and has sickened more than 4,000 — mostly in southeastern Michigan and some surrounding areas.

Just tried to change my avatar to 27 years. It went backwards.

Just tried to change my avatar to 27 years. It went backwards.

Do you feel 2yrs younger?

Cheers.