Huffington Post
by MARY PAPENFUSS
June 10, 2019
Drones Mobilized To Battle Ravens Eating Baby Tortoises In California Desert. The machines are coating bird eggs with oil so they won’t hatch to feast on dwindling desert tortoise populations.
The raven population in the western Mojave has increased more than 700% in the last 25 years and threatens to wipe out desert tortoises if nothing is done. In some places, “where there used to be 10 ravens, there are now 15,000,” Allison Fedrick, tortoise outreach and animal care keeper at The Living Desert, said.
Research biologist Mercy Vaughn and self-described “life-long tortoise biologist” Tim Shields are spearheading the drone project in coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Over the past two months, their team has oiled 525 raven eggs in 116 nests on public land that is considered critical habitat for desert tortoises.
The population of the common raven is exploding across the American West, where it thrives on human refuse and roadkill. As the large, strutting predators piggyback on the spread of human civilization, they are expanding into territories where they have never been seen in such large numbers.
