Drones can serve a variety of applications. In addition to their military uses, they can deliver packages, take photographs, and even serve as pop-up cellphone base stations.
And now yet another application has emerged. As Alistair MacDonald reports in the Wall Street Journal, photographer Steve Wambolt had proposed using his drone to take pictures of Ottawa. A city councilor asked him if the drone could chase away Canada geese.
Indeed it could, writes MacDonald, adding, “Mr. Wambolt’s drone has succeeded where years of sound decoys, dogs, and sickly-tasting compounds failed, ridding the city beach on Petrie Island of a goose that can drop two pounds of poop a day.”
The waste, Wambolt says, contains bacteria including E. coli and listeria and consequently poses a health risk to children playing in parks frequented by the geese.
Not everyone is a fan of Wambolt’s plan to use a squadron of drones to rid the city of its geese. MacDonald quotes Linda Hay, who enjoys photographing birds, as noting that 69 different bird species inhabit Andrew Haydon Park, including Brant geese from the Arctic. “They are beautiful,” she said, “and if you scare the geese, you will scare everything else away.”
Further, there is an effort to declare the Canada goose the national bird. As MacDonald puts it, “The prospect of the goose winning the title leaves Mr. Wambolt with a tough pitch: Chasing what could be the national bird out of the nation’s capital.”
