The Genius of the Barn Owl's Feathers

Reminded if this video immediately https://youtu.be/-WigEGNnuTE they got almost nothing on the mics.

> Over the next few days, the owl makes 16 more strikes at mice, missing only four times, each time by less than two inches.

How did the experimenter measure miss distance in pitch darkness? IR illumination is presumably out in case the owl was able to see it, and I didn't think thermal imaging was a thing yet in the late '50s.

Looking at the Russo/Ukrainian war, I wonder if/when someone introduces "owl drones".

Current drones are not very loud (well, Shaheds are), but if someone could make them more silent, they would be even harder to detect. Maybe covering them with a structure similar to owl featchers would do it.

MIT should know better that Natural Selection ≠ Genius