Fatal injuries to birds from collisions with aircraft reveal anti‐predator behaviours

Bernhardt, Glen E.; Blackwell, Bradley F.; DeVault, Travis L.; Kutschbach-Brohl, Lisa

doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.2010.01043.x

Cited by 39 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The implication is that some traits that enhance the chances of survival during a predator attack may still be used by animals during a vehicle approach but may nevertheless lead to mortality. For instance, Bernhardt et al (2010) found that birds tried to fly upwards when moving toward an aircraft and downwards when moving away from it, as they do when exposed to predators (Lima, 1993); yet they still collided with airplanes. Furthermore, birds tend to increase the escape distances on roads with higher speed limits (Legagneux and Ducatez, 2013;Husby, 2016) and increase the escape angle away from the road as the speed of the vehicles increases (Husby and Husby, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fourth, based on the fact that birds try to avoid collisions with aircraft by veering from their flight paths (Bernhardt et al, 2010), we hypothesized that species with morphological adaptations that enhance maneuverability would be at an advantage to engage in quick steering away (i.e., faster escape speed; Burns and Ydenberg, 2002;McFarlane et al, 2016) from an approaching vehicle to prevent a strike (Brown and Bomberger Brown, 2013;Santos et al, 2016). Two measures of wing morphology can be used as indices of maneuverability: (1) wing loading (i.e., ratio of body mass to wing area), which reflects the ability of a wing to turn relative to body mass (i.e., increasing with lower wing loadings; Lindhe Norberg, 2002); and (2) wing aspect ratio (i.e., ratio of wing span squared to wing area), which reflects the ability of a wing to quickly change direction (i.e., increasing with lower aspect ratios; Alexander, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Species With Greater Aerial Maneuverability Have Higher Frequency of Collisions With Aircraft: A Comparative Study

et al. 2018

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Antipredator responses may appear unsuccessful when animals are exposed to approaching vehicles, often resulting in mortality. Recent studies have addressed whether certain biological traits are associated with variation in collision risk with cars, but not with higher speed-vehicles like aircraft. Our goal was to establish the association between different species traits (i.e., body mass, eye size, brain size, wing loading, wing aspect ratio) and the frequency of bird collisions with aircraft (hereafter, bird strikes) using a comparative approach controlling for the effects of shared ancestry. We proposed directional predictions as to how each of the species traits would affect the frequency of bird strikes. Considering 39 bird species with all traits represented, the model containing wing loading had the best fit to account for the variance in bird strikes across species. In another model with 54 species exploring the fit to different polynomial models but considering only wing loading, we found that wing loading was negatively and linearly associated with the frequency of bird strikes. Counterintuitively, species with lower wing loading (hence, greater maneuverability) had a higher frequency of bird strikes. We discuss potential non-mutually exclusive explanations (e.g., high wing loading species fly faster, thus gaining some extra time to avoid the aircraft flight path; high wing loading species are hazed more intensively at airports, which could lower collisions, etc.). Ultimately, our findings uncovered that species with low wing loading get struck at a higher rate at airports, which reduces the safety risk for humans because these species tend not to cause damaging strikes, but the ecological consequences of their potentially higher local mortality are unknown.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species With Greater Aerial Maneuverability Have Higher Frequency of Collisions With Aircraft: A Comparative Study

et al. 2018

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“…In our approaching radar experiment, the increase in flight initiation distance we observed could allow birds to perform escape maneuvers more successfully in response to an aircraft (Bernhardt et al, 2010). To get a rough idea how our results could apply to moving aircraft, we will assume flight initiation distance is the same in response to aircraft.…”

Section: Applied Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of radar on avian behavior: Implications for wildlife management at airports

Sheridan

Randolet

DeVault

et al. 2015

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

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“…Animals appear to react to oncoming automobiles, aircraft and other nonbiological threats in a qualitatively similar manner to predators [7,8]. During these encounters, animals use some variation of their antipredator repertoire [9], possibly because the evolutionary novelty of modern vehicles precludes more specialized responses [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speed kills: ineffective avian escape responses to oncoming vehicles

et al. 2015

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Animal-vehicle collisions cause high levels of vertebrate mortality worldwide, and what goes wrong when animals fail to escape and ultimately collide with vehicles is not well understood. We investigated alert and escape behaviours of captive brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) in response to virtual vehicle approaches of different sizes and at speeds ranging from 60 to 360 km h 21 . Alert and flight initiation distances remained similar across vehicle speeds, and accordingly, alert and flight initiation times decreased at higher vehicle speeds. Thus, avoidance behaviours in cowbirds appeared to be based on distance rather than time available for escape, particularly at 60-150 km h 21 ; however, at higher speeds (more than or equal to 180 km h 21 ) no trend in response behaviour was discernible. As vehicle speed increased, cowbirds did not have enough time to assess the approaching vehicle, and cowbirds generally did not initiate flight with enough time to avoid collision when vehicle speed exceeded 120 km h 21 . Although potentially effective for evading predators, the decision-making process used by cowbirds in our study appears maladaptive in the context of avoiding fast-moving vehicles. Our methodological approach and findings provide a framework to assess how novel management strategies could affect escape rules, and the sensory and cognitive abilities animals use to avoid vehicle collisions.

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Fatal injuries to birds from collisions with aircraft reveal anti‐predator behaviours

Cited by 39 publications

References 18 publications

Species With Greater Aerial Maneuverability Have Higher Frequency of Collisions With Aircraft: A Comparative Study

Species With Greater Aerial Maneuverability Have Higher Frequency of Collisions With Aircraft: A Comparative Study

The effects of radar on avian behavior: Implications for wildlife management at airports

Speed kills: ineffective avian escape responses to oncoming vehicles

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