A team of New Mexico researchers is reverse-engineering dead birds and turning them into drones.

Researchers at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, led by Dr. Mostafa Hassanalian, a mechanical engineering professor, take taxidermied birds and equip them with drone technology, Reuters reported. The purpose of the devices is to understand the flight abilities of birds and apply their techniques to the aviation industry.

Courtesy of Katie Bauer

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“Now we can use reengineered birds and dead birds and make them as a drone," Hassanalian told the New York Post. "And the only thing that we need to provide them to make them alive is to basically design an attrition mechanism, put in their body, and everything is there. So they have their tail, they have their wings, they have their head, the body, everything is there. So we do reverse engineering."

"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," he told Reuters.

Courtesy of Katie Bauer

The prototypes are being tested in a purpose-built cage at the research university, but they still have a ways to go. The maximum flight time for the drones is about 20 minutes, but that time is inadequate for the type of "undercover" flying researchers are hoping to undertake.

Once the flight time is extended, researchers will try to conduct tests among live birds in the wild.

Hassanalian acknowledged the elephant in the room, which is the military use of the object. However, he assured those concerned that the primary purpose of the birds was for the civil aviation industry.

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“We cannot deny the application of this for other types of military types of application," he said. "But what we have in focus is mainly civil application and specifically to understand the wildlife or monitor the birds."

Reuters obtained a live presentation of the drones that showed how they fly.