$100 to down a drone

The farming and ranching town of Deer Trail in Colorado in the US, which boasts that it held the world's first rodeo in 1869, is now considering starting a 21st-century tradition - paying a reward to anyone who shoots down an unmanned drone.

Next month, trustees of the town of 600 about 90km east of Denver will debate an ordinance that would allow residents to buy hunting licences to shoot down "unmanned aerial vehicles" .

The town would pay $100 to anyone who can produce the fuselage or tail of a downed drone.

"Either the nose or tail may be damaged but not both," according to the proposal, which was crafted by army veteran Phillip Steel who, however, acknowledges the idea's whimsical nature.

But he said the increase in the number of drones for commercial and government use was alarming.

Steel admitted, however, that he had not seen any drones himself but said that ranchers outside the town had.