Wildlife and Airports - Paper Example

There is a wildlife management system team at OHare International Airport. Raptors are commonly found because of the presence if ideal habitat for hunting. The team of environmental management takes care of wildlife by catching and relocating them to other sites slightly away from the airfield. The wildlife and habitat management work hand-in-hand with the airport authorities to ensure that beavers are not carelessly discarded around the airports. Moreover, the crew that cuts grass ensures that the trimming is at a proper height. Other projects involve placing net and pull, and Swedish Goshawk traps, as well as carrying out wildlife surveys twice a week. The perimeter of the airport has 6 feet fences to keep away the deer, and the coyotes. The airport team in collaboration with the National Wildlife Research Center does studies on predators birds, evaluate them, and observe the duration they spend in major airport zones such as the approach area. The principal aim is to reduce risks to wildlife and aircraft. Wildlife Raptor relocation program is one major emphasis on wildlife management (USDAAPHIS, 2011).

There are many techniques used to manage the raptor population at OHare Airport. The team cannot just shoot these animals. The highlighted methods are used yearly for live-capture, after that, the traps are removed from the airport. The trapped birds are banded using the stranded USGS metal band and taken to an approximate distance of 80 km or even more. The stagnant waters at the airport are as well major breeding grounds for wildlife at the airport. The environment team works with the airport authority to pump out the water and help in the reduction of breeding grounds. The team ensures that long grasses are reduced to eliminate conducive environment. In the case the Raptors can navigate to nearby bushes, the trees are cut so that they cannot get any other hiding grounds (USDAAPHIS, 2011). The bird pipes are also installed at the airports building to redirect birds away from the airport. All the necessary steps at the airport are done to ensure that the operations do not attract animals. At the airport, also, the huge stones are placed at the base of the fences to help in keeping away the burrowing animals like cats. The technique prevents access of wild animals into the airport and also fortifies the fences.

The airport management works with the USDA or the wildlife services to achieve the objective of the airport wildlife management team. In 2010 through 2013, there were at least 25% of damaging strikes due to the struck by bird guild. Another option to reduce wildlife animal conflict is to use an integrated wildlife damage management (IWDM) platform that is implemented at the ORD to lower/eliminate the presence of animals at the airport. The Raptors may be released with the GPS for tracking their movements so that the environment team can monitor their mobility, know how far and how much time they are away when the aircraft approaches the running lane. In collaboration with the USDA, the environment management is concerned with the effectiveness of their programs, ensuring that no animals health is negatively affected. Sometimes, the team observes if the relocation distance may have any effect on the Raptors (Guerrant, Pullins, Beckerman & Washburn, 2013). All these are work that the wildlife management team does to protect both the animals and the people.

References

Guerrant, T. L., Pullins, C. K., Beckerman, S. F., & Washburn, B. E. (2013). Managing Raptors to Reduce Wildlife Strikes at Chicagos OHare Interna-tional Airport.USDAAPHIS. (2011). Wildlife Services work at Chicago O'Hare. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx8R1yEjJyQ