According to Reuters, a research team in New Mexico is turning taxidermy birds into drones to analyze flying patterns.
The project’s lead, Mostafa Hassanalian, a professor of mechanical engineering at the New Mexico Institute of Mines and Technology in Socorro, said the team turned to dead birds when mechanical bird drones failed to produce satisfactory results.
“We came up with this idea that we can use … dead birds and make them (into) a drone,” said Hassanalian.Â
He has thoroughly studied drones, and said “We do reverse engineering.”
Scientists intend to utilize them to research bird formations and flying patterns, which can then be used in the aviation sector.
The taxidermy bird drones are now being tested at the institution in a special cage.
Hassanalian explained, “if we learn how these birds manage energy between themselves, we can apply (that) into the future aviation industry to save more energy and save more fuel.”
The bird drone prototype can only fly for at the high end 20 minutes. Researchers are working to create a drone that can spend more time in the air and will conduct testing on live birds.
The study is unintentionally similar to the bizarre Gen Z conspiracy theory that claims “Birds Aren’t Real.”
The odd conspiracy, which dates back to 2019, maintained that the birds in the sky are fake and that the US government has been using drones to spy on citizens.Â
(Although the movement’s adherents recognize that birds are in fact real and have created the conspiracy as a joke, the US government does in reality snoop on its citizens in various ways.)
Hassanalian said in a statement that the “Birds Aren’t Real” campaign had no influence on his findings. “I actually did not know about the people of ‘The birds aren’t real.”
 “I found out about them once my story came out for the first time,” he said.
