In the News

Authors

Joe N. Caudell, Purdue UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

Fall 2011

Document Type

Article

Citation

Human–Wildlife Interactions (Fall 2011) 5(2): article 1

doi: 10.26077/7y6a-p072

Special topic: Bird strikes

Comments

United States government work. Public domain

Abstract

Bird strikes: an international issue

Bird-strike risks both in the United States and internationally continue to present challenges to aviators (Figure 1), as the sampling of incidents below attest. In July 2011, an American Airlines flight from Memphis, Tennessee, to Dallas, Texas, struck a bird during takeoff, the AV Herald reported. Kuenselonline.com reported that a Drukair flight departing from the Paro airport, Bhutan, for Bankok, Thailand, with 108 passengers aboard struck a flock of birds during takeoff. In Manila, a lagoon near the Ninov Aquino International Airport is home to at least 80 species of migratory birds, making landings at this airport problematic, GMA News reported.

Bear attacks increase

Several black bear (Ursus americanus) attacks have been reported across the United States during the summer of 2011. In Gilbert, Arizona, a 61-year old woman died from a bear attack in late June, according to the East Valley Tribune. The Alaska Dispatch reported that National Outdoor Leadership School students in Alaska were attacked by a grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) on July 23, 2011. People on the east coast of the United States were not immune to bear attacks this summer.

“Flying” deer blamed for power outage

Local power company investigators in the town of East Missoula, Montana, traced a power outage to a flying deer early this summer.

Feral swine continue to be both a problem and an opportunity

Reuters reported that feral swine populations appear to be increasing in New York state, and, in Michigan, feral swine may have been given new life. An order from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources designated wild hogs that are enclosed in fences at game ranches as “sporting swine.” This differs from the approach for the management of feral swine in the neighboring state of Indiana, where a recent rule from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources made it illegal to possess a live wild hog.

Cougar believed to have migrated from South Dakota to Connecticut

CNN reported that a cougar (Puma concolor) from the Black Hills of South Dakota migrated to Connecticut where it was struck by an SUV and killed. The National Wildlife Federation believed that this could be the start of a new trend leading to a new cougar population in the Northeast, the report stated.