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Nature Vs. Robot: Raven Attacks Drone In Mid-Air During Delivery Service

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Kevin Harness Contributor
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Australian resident Ben Roberts expected a Wing delivery drone to arrive with his coffee order and instead got video of a raven swooping down and attacking the device, ABC News reported Tuesday.

“From their point of view, they’re very intelligent birds, what must a drone look like to them? It would be like a flying saucer landing in our front yard to us,” Roberts said, according to ABC News. This was not the first time that a bird launched an assault on Roberts’ coffee order. After two ravens battered a previous drone order, they apparently learned how to avoid the device’s blades, The Canberra Times reported. (RELATED: Man Attacks Party With Drone Armed With Fireworks Over Loud Music. The Video Is Absolutely Unreal)

Cases of birds attacking garbage trucks, cars, cyclists, pedestrians and dogs are common in Australia, especially during the breeding season, Newsweek reported. Species such as Australian magpies and other nesting birds will become very protective and may attack anything that comes near their nests including people, according to Newsweek.

The drone delivery service company Wing announced in a statement that they will pause deliveries so that experts can study the ravens’ behavior and minimize a drone’s impact on birdlife, ABC News reported.

“While this is common during nesting season, we are committed to being strong stewards of the environment, and would like to have ornithological experts investigate this further to ensure we continue to have minimal impact on birdlife in our service locations,” the company said, according to ABC News.

Due to the lockdowns in Australia, there has been a surge of residents making orders via drones and with that, a surge of attacks like this one, according to Newsweek.