Cargando…

Deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the RobotFalcon

Collisions between birds and airplanes can damage aircrafts, resulting in delays and cancellation of flights, costing the international civil aviation industry more than 1.4 billion US dollars annually. Driving away birds is therefore crucial, but the effectiveness of current deterrence methods is l...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Storms, Rolf F., Carere, Claudio, Musters, Robert, van Gasteren, Hans, Verhulst, Simon, Hemelrijk, Charlotte K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9597169/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36285436
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2022.0497
_version_ 1784816034668085248
author Storms, Rolf F.
Carere, Claudio
Musters, Robert
van Gasteren, Hans
Verhulst, Simon
Hemelrijk, Charlotte K.
author_facet Storms, Rolf F.
Carere, Claudio
Musters, Robert
van Gasteren, Hans
Verhulst, Simon
Hemelrijk, Charlotte K.
author_sort Storms, Rolf F.
collection PubMed
description Collisions between birds and airplanes can damage aircrafts, resulting in delays and cancellation of flights, costing the international civil aviation industry more than 1.4 billion US dollars annually. Driving away birds is therefore crucial, but the effectiveness of current deterrence methods is limited. Live avian predators can be an effective deterrent, because potential prey will not habituate to them, but live predators cannot be controlled entirely. Thus, there is an urgent need for new deterrence methods. We developed the RobotFalcon, a device modelled after the peregrine falcon, and tested its effectiveness to deter flocks of corvids, gulls, starlings and lapwings. We compared its effectiveness with that of a drone, and of conventional methods routinely applied at a military airbase. The RobotFalcon scared away bird flocks from fields immediately, and these fields subsequently remained free of bird flocks for hours. The RobotFalcon outperformed the drone and the best conventional method at the airbase (distress calls). Importantly, there was no evidence that bird flocks habituated to the RobotFalcon over the course of the fieldwork. We conclude that the RobotFalcon is a practical and ethical solution to drive away bird flocks with all advantages of live predators but without their limitations.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9597169
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher The Royal Society
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-95971692022-10-26 Deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the RobotFalcon Storms, Rolf F. Carere, Claudio Musters, Robert van Gasteren, Hans Verhulst, Simon Hemelrijk, Charlotte K. J R Soc Interface Life Sciences–Engineering interface Collisions between birds and airplanes can damage aircrafts, resulting in delays and cancellation of flights, costing the international civil aviation industry more than 1.4 billion US dollars annually. Driving away birds is therefore crucial, but the effectiveness of current deterrence methods is limited. Live avian predators can be an effective deterrent, because potential prey will not habituate to them, but live predators cannot be controlled entirely. Thus, there is an urgent need for new deterrence methods. We developed the RobotFalcon, a device modelled after the peregrine falcon, and tested its effectiveness to deter flocks of corvids, gulls, starlings and lapwings. We compared its effectiveness with that of a drone, and of conventional methods routinely applied at a military airbase. The RobotFalcon scared away bird flocks from fields immediately, and these fields subsequently remained free of bird flocks for hours. The RobotFalcon outperformed the drone and the best conventional method at the airbase (distress calls). Importantly, there was no evidence that bird flocks habituated to the RobotFalcon over the course of the fieldwork. We conclude that the RobotFalcon is a practical and ethical solution to drive away bird flocks with all advantages of live predators but without their limitations. The Royal Society 2022-10-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9597169/ /pubmed/36285436 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2022.0497 Text en © 2022 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Life Sciences–Engineering interface
Storms, Rolf F.
Carere, Claudio
Musters, Robert
van Gasteren, Hans
Verhulst, Simon
Hemelrijk, Charlotte K.
Deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the RobotFalcon
title Deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the RobotFalcon
title_full Deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the RobotFalcon
title_fullStr Deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the RobotFalcon
title_full_unstemmed Deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the RobotFalcon
title_short Deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the RobotFalcon
title_sort deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the robotfalcon
topic Life Sciences–Engineering interface
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9597169/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36285436
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2022.0497
work_keys_str_mv AT stormsrolff deterrenceofbirdswithanartificialpredatortherobotfalcon
AT carereclaudio deterrenceofbirdswithanartificialpredatortherobotfalcon
AT mustersrobert deterrenceofbirdswithanartificialpredatortherobotfalcon
AT vangasterenhans deterrenceofbirdswithanartificialpredatortherobotfalcon
AT verhulstsimon deterrenceofbirdswithanartificialpredatortherobotfalcon
AT hemelrijkcharlottek deterrenceofbirdswithanartificialpredatortherobotfalcon