8 | New Scientist | 21/28 December 2019
THE starry night harlequin toad
has been documented by biologists
for the first time since 1991 in
Colombia. But unlike some other
stories of “rediscovered” species,
this one was never really lost – the
local Arhuaco people knew where
the toad, which they call “gouna”,
was all along.
“We have shared our home
with the gouna for thousands of
years,” says Ruperto Chaparro
Villafaña, who represents the
Arhuaco community of Sogrome.
The conservation group
Fundación Atelopus spent
years building trust between
the biologists and the Sogrome
community in the Sierra Nevada de
Santa Marta mountains. Eventually,
the Arhuaco people agreed to
show them the toad in the wild.
The starry night toad was
considered potentially extinct, but
the team documented a population
of around 30 individuals. ❚ConservationA DRONE with a machine gun
attached can hit targets with high
precision, according to its makers.
Turkey is set to become the first
country to have the drone, when
it gets a delivery this month.
The 25-kilogram craft has
eight rotating blades for flight. Its
machine gun carries 200 rounds
of ammunition and can fire single
shots or 15-round bursts.
Many countries and groups
already use small military drones
that can drop grenades or fly into
a target to detonate an explosive.
The new drone, called Songar and
made by Ankara-based electronics
firm Asisguard, is the first to be
equipped with a firearm and to be
ready for service. Turkey expectsthe drones to be delivered before
the end of the year.
It is hard for a drone to shoot
accurately, partly because of the
difficulty of judging range and
angle, and partly because the
recoil from each shot significantly
moves the drone, affecting the
aim for the next round.
Songar has two systems to
overcome these challenges.
One uses sensors to calculate
distance, angle and wind speed,
and work out where to aim. The
second is a set of robot arms that
move the gun to compensate for
the effects of recoil.
Asisguard claims Songar has
an accuracy that corresponds to
hitting a 15-centimetre area from200 metres. That is sufficient for
every bullet to hit a human-sized
target at that range. A human
drone pilot picks the target by
putting cross hairs on it using
a screen on a remote control.
Songar can also operate in
groups. Ayhan Sunar at Asisguard
says a swarm of three drones can
be flown using a single remote
control, with all three firing at
a target simultaneously.
Drones are extremely hard
to stop. There is concern that the
technology will be easy for othersto copy, says Robert Bunker at
the US Army’s Strategic Studies
Institute in Pennsylvania.
Songar may also open up new
uses for drones, says Bunker. For
example, machine-gun drones
could lay down suppressive fire
to keep defenders’ heads down
while other drones attack more
substantial targets, he says.
The Turkish military currently
patrols the nation’s border with
Syria. In October, Turkey launched
military action including
air strikes on border towns,
resulting in the displacement
of hundreds of thousands of
people, as well as reports of
human rights violations. ❚Weapons technologyTurkey gets a military drone with a gun
Brian OwensToad ‘rediscovered’
Colombian locals knew where the “lost” amphibian was all along
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“Drones are extremely hard
to stop. There is concern
that the technology will
be easy for others to copy” David Hambling