NABU Hires Contract Killers
High-tech drones use AI to independently locate foxes. The drone operator can sit back and relax — the fox has no chance.
Mid-February in East Frisia. A drone takes off in one of the many small game hunting districts in the Aurich rural district.
The drone operator is searching for predators. With a full battery charge, the aircraft circles and locates foxes.
Afterwards, the man attempts to motivate the local hobby hunters to shoot the foxes with the support of his drone. And that is exactly what happens.
The drone operator is in fact Michael Steven, the head of the NABU ecological nature conservation station in East Frisia. As studies demonstrate, hobby hunting fails as a means of population control.
Destroying animals with high-tech equipment is warfare, not hobby hunting
Dr. Hansjörg Heeren of the Frisian Association for Nature Conservation (FVN): «We are aware of several such cases in the Aurich and Emden districts. This form of hobby hunting is contemptible and prohibited — using high-tech means to exterminate a species. That is warfare, not hobby hunting,» writes bild.de. The animal welfare problem is particularly stark here.
It is additionally illegal when a non-hobby-hunter such as Mr. Steven independently pursues foxes with his NABU drone without prior consent from the hunting leaseholders.
Hunting leaseholder H. Bruns confirmed to BILD that this had also happened on his land.
Populations of ground-nesting birds under threat
Why is NABU resorting to such drastic measures? It is a desperate attempt to save the populations of ground-nesting birds in East Frisia. NABU itself is to blame. Misguided management has radically decimated populations on its own land.
The absence of fertiliser and manure from these areas causes soil life to die off, and with it the birds' very basis for survival. FVN spokesperson Dr. Hansjörg Heeren: «Ground-nesting birds are always the first to leave such nature conservation areas. Everyone here knows that.» More on the Biodiversity.
The Frisian Nature Conservation Association is calling on the authorities to immediately stop the illegal hobby hunting with drones.
In its guidelines on the subject of drones, the German Hunting Association (DJV) states: The use of drones to increase hunting success must be rejected. Drones must not be used for regular hobby hunting in order to achieve a higher bag, for example by checking game covers immediately before hobby hunting. If drones are used to drive, disturb or direct game, or to guide beaters or a stalking marksman, this even constitutes a violation of the generally recognized principles of fair chase, which calls into question the reliability of the hunter concerned.
Dossiers: Fox in Switzerland: Most hunted predator without a lobby | Fox hunting without facts: How JagdSchweiz invents problems
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