Airport Wildlife Management

Airport Wildlife Management

Airports all around the world rely on thousands of day-to-day tasks that must be done to operate safely and efficiently. One clear example of this is wildlife control. Airports are one biggest and complex infrastructures, and the fact that they are open spaces makes them vulnerable to wildlife incursions. The most common type of wildlife in the U.S. are birds, coyotes, and house pets. These animal incursions in airport property or near it pose a major risk for aircrafts. One of the most famous accidents in the United States was U.S. Airways flight 1549, in which a A320 encountered a flock of birds a few hundred feet after take-off. Birds entered both engines severely damaging it, causing the aircraft to land on the Hudson River.

Is because of the danger that wildlife represent to airport operations that managers and staff have designed several countermeasures. Visual deterrents have become the best way to prevent this animals from entering to runways and taxiways. According to Devault L. Travis (2013) "visual deterrent are generally intended to provoke a fear response. Examples include scarecrows or other human forms, object movement, animal effigies, methods that provoke neophobia, and methods that combine movement and neophobia" (p. 11). Airports like London Heathrow for example, employ sound signals to scare birds and have constant patrols all around the airport to identify and mitigate this threat.

However, there are many other methods to accomplish this task. Animals have different sensory systems and responses to the environment, so one method can not work for every species. Different targeted methods are applied to the specific need of the airport.



References
Devault L., T. (2013). Wildlife in Airport Environments: Preventing Animal-Aircraft Collisions through Science-Based  Management. John Hopkins University Press.
Taylor, J. (2018). London Heathrow Airport reveals expansion masterplan. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/heathrow-airport-expansion-plans-revealed-intl-scli-gbr/index.html