SREL Reprint #3626

Use of avian GPS tracking to mitigate human fatalities from bird strikes caused by large soaring birds

Eneko Arrondo1,10, Marina García-Alfonso1, Julio Blas1, Ainara Cortes-Avizanda2, Manuel De la Riva1, Travis L. DeVault3, Wolfgang Fiedler4,5, Andrea Flack4,5, José Jimenez6, Sergio A. Lambertucci7, Antoni Margalida6, Pilar Oliva-Vidal8, Louis Phipps9, Jose Antonio Sanchez-Zapata10, Martin Wikelski4,5, and Jose Antonio Donazar1

1Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Seville, Spain
2Animal Demography and Ecology Unit, IMEDEA CSIC-UIB, Esporles, Spain
3Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Aiken, SC, USA
4Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell, Germany
5Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
6Institute for Game and Wildlife Research, IREC (CSICUCLM-JCCM), Ciudad Real, Spain
7Grupo de Investigaciones en Biología de la Conservación, INIBIOMA,
Universidad Nacional del Comahue-CONICET, Bariloche, Argentina
8Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Life Sciences and Engineering, University of Lérida, Lérida, Spain
9Vulture Conservation Foundation, Zürich, Switzerland
10Department of Applied Biology, Miguel Hernández University, Alicante, Spain

Abstract:
1. Birds striking aircrafts cause substantial economic loss world-wide and, more worryingly, human and wildlife fatalities. Designing effective measures to mitigate fatal bird strikes requires an in-depth knowledge of the characteristics of this incident type and the flight behaviours of the bird species involved.
2. The characteristics of bird strikes involving aircraft crashes or loss of human life in Spain were studied and compared to flight patterns of birds monitored by GPS. We tracked 210 individuals of the three species that cause the most crashes and human fatalities in Spain: griffon and cinereous vultures Gyps fulvus and Aegypius monachus and white storks Ciconia ciconia.
3. All the crashes involved general aviation aircrafts, while none were recorded in commercial aviation. Most occurred outside airport boundaries, at midday, and in the warmest months, which all correspond with the maximum flight activity of the studied species.
4. Bird flight altitudes overlapped the legal flight altitude limit set for general aviation.
5. Policy implications. Mitigation of fatal bird strikes should especially address the conflict between general aviation and large soaring birds. Air transportation authorities should consider modifying the flight ceiling for general aviation flights above the studied species' maximum flight altitude. Moreover, policymakers should issue pilots with recommendations regarding the dates and times of peak activity of large soaring bird species to improve flight safety.

Keywords: aircraft, bird strikes, cinereous vulture, GPS, griffon vulture, movement ecology, storks,
wildlife conflicts

SREL Reprint #3626

Eneko, A., M. García-Alfonso, J. Blas, A. Cortes-Avizanda, M. De la Riva, T. DeVault, W. Fiedler, A. Flack, J. Jimenez, S. A. Lambertucci, A. Margalida, P. Oliva-Vidal, L. Phipps, J. A. Sanchez-Zapata, M. Wikelski, and J. A. Donazar. 2021. Use of avian GPS tracking to mitigate human fatalities from bird strikes caused by large soaring birds. Journal of Applied Ecology 58:1411–1420.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).