Managing Raptors to Reduce Wildlife Strikes at Chicagoâ•Žs Oâ•ŽHare Interna-tional Airport

Wildlife-aircraft collisions (wildlife strikes) have increased nationally over the past 22 years; denoted in the National Wildlife Strike Database that has been maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) since 1990. Increasing wildlife populations and air traffic coupled with quieter, faster aircraft create a significant risk to aviation safety; the cost to the civil aviation industry is an estimated $718 million dollars annually. USDA/APHIS/Wildlife Services provides technical and direct assistance to over 785 airports and airbases around the United States, including Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD). At ORD, raptors are the most commonly struck bird guild accounting for 25% of all damaging strikes in 2011. An integrated wildlife damage management program is implemented at ORD to reduce the presence of wildlife on the airfield, consequently lowering the risk of wildlife strikes. Professional airport wildlife biologists at ORD concentrate much of their efforts on raptor damage management due to the high strike risk these birds pose to aircraft on the airfield itself. A variety of techniques are currently used to manage raptor populations at ORD.