Hawks could be the key to catching rogue drones.
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The flight trajectory of the birds could be used as a blueprint for drones designed to hunt other unmanned aerial vehicles in cluttered areas.
Researchers from the University of Oxford found that Hawks used a mixed guidance law to pursue their target, which can be recreated n the drones.
The university said: ''Previous research has shown that falcons intercept prey using the same guidance law as homing missiles, called proportional navigation.
''This guidance law is optimal against smoothly-manoeuvring aerial targets, but is prone to being thrown off by the zig-zagging manoeuvres of terrestrial prey like hares, and will not necessarily lead to a feasible flight path through the cluttered habitats that hawks frequent.''