FACT-CHECK: Is French Government Using ‘Drone Bird’ to Spy on Franco-Phone and West African  Countries?

FACT-CHECK: Is French Government Using ‘Drone Bird’ to Spy on Franco-Phone and West African  Countries?

CLAIM: A broadly circulated WhatsApp message claims that the French authorities has created a novel ‘drone bird’ know-how to spy on its former colonies and West African nations, following the recent coup in Niger.

FULL-TEXT: The textual content that accompanied the footage of the ‘drone bird’ flapping its wings reads, “This 👆 is not a bird, if you see it anywhere around you, PLEASE be kind enough to shoot it down by *”ALL”* means potential and available to you… 

“They have been mainly developed by the French, to spy the francophone nations and our neighbors of West African nations after the coup in Niger. But now presently adopted by the terrorists across the sub-saharan areas of Africa [sic].

“So be at alert, as a result of it’s been noticed round some villages in Minna (Niger State), Kaduna, Plateau and Bauchi distant areas. It is alleged to be despatched to fly over, scan and see into the villages the place  inhabitants is substantial, in order that Boko Haram, Bandits or kidnappers will strike and kill and maim [sic].

Meanwhile, the French military had used birds of prey in 2017 to take down drones to guard its air bases and safe public airspace in case a drone posed a risk.

France 24 published, “Eagles have been first utilized by the Dutch police drive to intercept drones utilized by criminals and terrorists. Inspired by this success, the French army started coaching eagles for army programmes.

“A drone means food for these birds,” Gerald Machoukow, the army base’s falconer, instructed FRANCE 24’s Fanny Allard. 

“Now they automatically go after them,” he mentioned.

In 2013, Egyptian authorities detained a chicken on suspicion of spying after recognizing an digital system tied to its leg. 

However, they subsequently discovered that the equipment was a wildlife tracker utilized by French scientists to check the motion of migrating birds.

VERIFICATION: Through Invid Verifier, PRNigeria dissected the footage, conducting a reverse picture search on the bird-drone.

The findings revealed that the video originated from a TikTok user who captioned it, ‘The bird you see in the future may just be a toy.’ 

PRNigeria observes that the TikTok post was ultimately eliminated, indicating its unavailability after a number of makes an attempt to observe it.

The flying bird is a radio-controlled pterodactyl, developed by Ohio-based PaulG Toys, that really flies by flapping its wings and emits a terrifyingly real looking pterodactyl screech. Its eyes mild up pink when it’s powered up, making it much more menacing. 

The Flying Pterodactyl’s battery works for 15 to twenty minutes of flight time, and might be swapped for a fully-charged elective further battery on the spot. The chicken has an operational vary of 500 meters. If and when it crashes upon the loss of life of its battery, its wing and leg joints pop off so that they don’t get irreversibly broken.

CONCLUSION: Based on the info gathered by PRNigeria, there isn’t a substantive proof to verify the declare that the French authorities invented a novel know-how ‘drone bird’ to spy on their former colonies and West African nations.

The video of the bird-drone, referred to as ‘Flying Pterodactyl’ is a toy produced for leisure and amusement.

PRNigeria, subsequently, concludes that the declare that the French authorities had developed a bird-drone know-how to spy on its former colonies and West African nations is Misleading.

By PRNigeria