Watch a raven attack a delivery drone from Google's sister company, forcing it to suspend some deliveries in Australia
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Sophia Ankel
Sep 29, 2021, 20:28 IST
Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency/Robert Alexander/Getty Images
Deliveries by drones in part of Canberra, Australia, were suspended after repeated bird attacks.
Service operator Wing said it would wait while researchers assess the birds' behavior.
A man who filmed one attack said "it's only a matter of time" until a drone is brought down.
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A drone delivery service in Canberra, Australia, has had to contend with its devices getting attacked by ravens guarding their nests.
Wing, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, has been delivering everything from coffee, medicine, and office supplies to Canberra residents since 2019.
But on Tuesday it announced it would suspend deliveries to part of the city after several reports of ravens swooping down on its drones, The Canberra Times reported.
In a statement to customers in the local area, Wing said: "We've identified some birds in the area demonstrating territorial behaviors and swooping at moving objects," according to ABC News Australia.
A Wing spokesperson told Insider that the drone in the video completed its delivery and returned to its home facility after the attack.
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The spokesperson said that Wing drones have "multiple redundancies to help ensure safe operations in the event that something like this occurs."
Wing said it suspended delivery to a "limited number" of customers, without giving a precise figure. Its operations in the rest of Canberra were unaffected.
Ornithologist Neil Hermes told ABC News Australia that while ravens are very territorial, they have never attacked drones before.
"They will swoop dogs and activity around their nests, but attacking drones is new," Hermes said.
Wayne Condon, the chief pilot and instructor with UAV Training Australia, told the network that drone operators should avoid known nesting locations.
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"At the end of the day, it's their sky, and we are the visitor. Fingers crossed, if you act fast enough, you'll be able to save your aircraft and not injure the bird!" Condon told The Canberra Times.
Last month, a 5-month-old baby died in Brisbane, Australia, after the mother dropped it trying to dodge a swooping magpie.
Editor's note: This post was amended on September 28 to remove the suggestion a raven "took out" a drone. Wing said the drone completed its delivery after being attacked. The post was also changed to make clear that the suspension of deliveries affected only a subset of customers in Canberra.
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