Drones to Drop Vaccine-Carrying M&Ms to Animals
OutdoorHub Reporters 07.19.16
If you got to play video games as a kid, chances are someone declared that no matter how skilled you got, video games would never prepare you for a job in the real world. Well, now is the time to beg to differ.
Over the years various techniques have been attempted to vaccinate wild animals. Currently in the works is a plan involving M&Ms dipped in a vaccine-laden peanut butter that will be dropped from a drone in 30-foot intervals. The airborne snack concoction will also have an added dye component to stain the whiskers of animals that consume them, clearly identifying those successfully vaccinated.
The purpose of this sweet treat from the sky is to vaccinate black-footed ferrets. Of course, in order to achieve this, they are aiming as well for prairie dogs, which are preyed upon by ferrets. Initial trials will be taking place in UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Montana, which is a prairie dog and therefore ferret hotspot.
Efforts will begin in Montana on the 1st of September. Should these attempts prove successful, drones will be used to drop chocolate and peanut butter goodness to Arizona and Colorado, which indeed sounds very much like a video game concept come to life.
