Animals Spy a New Enemy: Drones

Just as far as birds go, perhaps putting protective rings around the propellers such as this one[1] might reduce or prevent propeller injuries to the animals.

As far as damage to drones from attacking animals... I have less sympathy :)

The noise might be the most annoying aspect of a drone. Animals tend to have very keen hearing and one of these bad boys hovering in the vicinity is going to be like a super loud and obnoxious leaf blower to a dog, coyote, deer, bear, etc.

But, it's likely that animals will adapt, as the writer pointed out, similarly to how predators and herd animals in Africa have gotten accustomed to eco-tourists in open buses, snapping pictures and shooting videos and chattering excitedly for reasons no animal can discern. Those crazy humans. As long as they don't try to steal my females....

1. http://technabob.com/blog/2013/12/08/swann-quad-starship-qua...

Eventually animals will adapt and tune them out, likely to occur with the ones which tend to assemble in large groups. The very large animals may not even notice or ever be concerned. The danger them becomes poachers who use them to scout areas out or worse arm their drones

Once again, legislation is playing catch-up to technology...

I'm looking forward to seeing more research done in this area. Obviously, drones give us incredible opportunities, but we need to do a cost/benefit calculation before we know what regulation would be sensible. And if we don't know the cost/risk factor, we can't do that, can we?