Center, Internet, Wildlife Damage Management
Human–Wildlife Interactions
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The Impact of COVID-19 on Wildlife Strike Rates in the United States
Date of this Version
Winter 2022
Document Type
Article
Citation
Human–Wildlife Interactions (Winter 2022) 16(3): article 9
doi: 10.26077/c36e-1bfd
Abstract
Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic impacted air traffic, industry bodies warned of the potential increase in wildlife strike risk. Prior to the pandemic, wildlife strikes were already a concern to the industry. We sought to evaluate industry warnings using interrupted time series analysis of wildlife strike trends in the United States. Using pre-pandemic wildlife strike trends, we compared a forecast of the expected monthly strike rates through the COVID-19 impact period (March 2020 to December 2020) to the actual wildlife strike rates for the same period. Our results showed an increase in wildlife strike rates in 5 out of the 10 months analyzed, supporting the need for careful consideration of wildlife strike risk through the industry’s recovery.
Comments
Open access. License: CC BY 4.0