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Earlier breeding > more young birds > more strikes with aircraft
BALTIMORE, Md. - Global warming may be involved in the explosive growth of certain bird populations, placing new pressure on airport wildlife control programs to mitigate the hazard of bird strikes to aircraft.
Although couching the findings of a recent study as "preliminary," the peak risk of bird strikes at Dublin Airport, Ireland, has shifted to later in the year and the change appears related to climate change, said Tom Kelly of the zoology department at University College, Cork, Ireland. He was speaking at the sixth annual meeting here of the National Birdstrike Committee (BSC).
The findings suggest that efforts to control bird populations at airports must be maintained, if not strengthened, to minimize the significant danger posed by potential collisions of birds with aircraft. Not only do bird strikes inflict considerable damage to aircraft, as well as injuries and death to occupants, airports can be held liable for the cost of birdstrikes if their bird control programs are found deficient.
Above all, climate change may well be facilitating what Kelly described as "dramatic increases" in certain bird populations. This climate-related avian population growth needs to be viewed as a new threat to the successes achieved in recent years to reduce the incidence of bird strikes.
Richard Dolbeer, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) official and BSC chairman, noted that the North American non-migratory Canada goose population increased 3.6 fold from 1 million birds in 1990 to 3.6 million in 2003. Yet the incidence of goose strikes with aircraft has decreased significantly, notwithstanding the recent goose impact on an American Airlines [AMR] MD-80. The decline can be attributed to the elimination of airport habitats attractive to the geese, as well as to goose population control efforts ("ethnic cleansing," quipped one conference participant). As measured by strikes per 1 million geese per 1 million aircraft movements, the rate for 2003 was 0.8, or more than a 40...