Back in 2017, a student named Peter McIndoe held up a placard at a political march, bearing the now-infamous slogan: “Birds Aren’t Real.” What began as an obvious joke quickly spiralled out of control in a “post-truth” political landscape, and even today the conspiracy – namely, that the government exterminated all birds in the mid-20th century, and replaced them with lookalike spy drones – continues to spread in a half-satirical, half-serious form. In a bizarre example of life imitating art, though, we might actually be getting closer to seeing Birds Aren’t Real becoming a reality.

Earlier this month, scientists in New Mexico announced a new scheme that involves transforming dead birds (preserved via taxidermy) into working drones. Why? Good question. According to the mechanical engineering professor who is leading the project, Dr Mostafa Hassanalian, it’s all about studying their flight – something that artificial, mechanical birds have so far been unable to fully replicate, although they’ve come pretty close.

“We came up with this idea that we can use... dead birds and make them [into] a drone,” Hassanalian tells Reuters. “Everything is there... we do reverse engineering.” What we learn from this process, he adds, could be very helpful for a number of engineering efforts in the future. For example: “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.”

Luckily, this experiment doesn’t involve wiping out the national bird population, à la Birds Aren’t Real, and the taxidermy bird drones are currently confined to a purpose-built cage on the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology campus. The prototype is also limited to 20 minutes of flight time – it’s an ongoing effort to extend that time, and get the birds to a stage where they can be tested in the wild, among other (living) birds.

The New Mexico Tech researchers aren’t alone in their quest to give dead animals the gift of flight, however. Since 2012, the artist and inventor Bart Jansen has been experimenting with his own brand of taxidermy drones, via his organisation Copter Company. It all began with the death of his cat, Orville, he tells Dazed. When Orville was tragically killed by a car, he thought it was only fitting to construct a monument in his honour, but he wouldn’t just settle for a grave at the end of the garden. Instead, he decided to turn his deceased pet into the “Orvillecopter” – a furry beast that flies through the air, eyes wide in terror or wonder (it’s hard to tell), via rotors attached to his splayed-out little legs. This is what the cat – originally named after the famed aviator Orville Wright – would have wanted, Jansen suggests. “How he loved birds.”

After the Orvillecopter ascended to viral fame on weirder corners of the internet, however, Jansen’s project expanded into something broader. Since the cat’s maiden flight, the inventor has given a mechanical second life to a range of other animals, following their unfortunate demise. We’re talking sharkjets, ostrichcopters, and flying rats. We’re talking badger submarines.

Following news of New Mexico Tech’s ongoing work with taxidermy bird drones, we reached out to Bart Jansen in the spirit of advancing collective knowledge in this very important area of engineering research. Below, he shares some of the advice he’s gained over the years, as well as problems to look out for (such as exploding badgers).

How does one get into turning dead animals into drones?

Bart Jansen: Well, even as a kid I collected animal bones and other remains. It is a biological fixation from my side. It comes out of pure interest for all that is alive. I collected roadkill for three months for an earlier project, The Observers Book of Roadkill, a bound collection of crudely preserved road pizzas, and when that smelly hump of [work] was finally done, my own cat Orville tried to headbutt a car out of the way. Probably out of curiosity. And you know how that ends. He was named after Orville Wright, the aviator, and I decided a monument was [appropriate], so he got his last life as a helicopter. After that more animals followed. It was just a lot of fun trying to get these animals airborne.

Can you describe the process?

Bart Jansen: It is the combined action of building a custom-made helicopter, and taxidermy of an animal. So the ingredients are: one prepared but still wet animal skin; one dummy body shape of that particular animal; one custom-made helicopter that fits in or around the dummy shape. Now build it and pull the skin around.

What has the reception to your work been like over the years?

Bart Jansen: On a scale from horrified or angry, to extremely amused and happy... I think the audience is nicely spread out along that scale. But almost no one does not care at all. You’re in one camp or in the other.

What has been your most difficult taxidermy transformation to date, and why?

Bart Jansen: I reckon the badger submarine. [It’s] hard to make things float weightlessly in water, and the first version caught on fire [because] the engine could not be cooled properly in that confined space.

What are some of the main considerations to take into account when turning a dead animal into a drone?

Bart Jansen: First: does it need to be done? If not, let’s do it. To put lots of effort into things that no one needs is one of the best things in life. In the case of my drones, they have no function except to make people aware of how us people handle and treat animals. Then of course [there’s] the technical part: how heavy will it be, so what batteries, engine, and electronic speed controllers does it need to have the longest flight time.

‘Does it need to be done? If not, let’s do it. To put lots of effort into things that no one needs is one of the best things in life” – Bart Jansen

What do you make of the new research turning taxidermied birds into drones for wildlife research?

Bart Jansen: It’s is actually not a new invention, here in the Netherlands they have been chasing off birds at airport landing strips with the help of flapping wing drones that look like birds of prey. It’s called Robird, it resembles a peregrine falcon. But those are fotoprint images on the drones. To actually use feathers would open up the [possibility] that a robot could get accepted around wild animals. Although the flapping wing robots produce quite a lot of sound that real birds obviously don’t, once the wildlife gets used to the presence of such a robot, natural behaviour might return and animals can [be] studied.

If you could give the researchers one piece of advice from your years of experience, what would it be?

Bart Jansen: What they will notice, is that feathers on real birds get groomed all day long. And robots don’t groom. It will be hard to keep these feathered robots in prime condition. They will get dirty and wet and feathers will break off.

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