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Danger! Vultures within sight.

WARNING: Bird Hazard Committee analyzes the risks.

ONCE AGAIN aviation is worried and the reason is the danger that Vultures represent.

Zoroel Díaz, President of the Committee for Bird/Wildlife Hazard Prevention requested to produce best efforts to reduce bird population.

What does she mean? Clara Castillo, who is also on the Committee, explains that those vultures that fly over the airport vicinity “can be hunted”.

However, Melquíades Ramos, a Technician at the ANAM Department of Protected Areas and Wild Lives, explained to Panama America, " animals can be hunted (kill them) only if they are recidivist and are not in danger of extinction.”
But, this should be the last resort, Ramos says. First, they should be scared away.

In 2005, Tocumen and Marcos A. Gelabert Airports reported 16 aircraft incidents due to collision with birds. So far this year, the number that The Civil Aviation Authority is managing is 7. With the naked eye, a low number, nevertheless, what worries the authorities is not the quantity of Bird incidents, but instead that some of them have registered fatal victims. Precisely, on January 27th 2001, two people died in Campana due to a Bird collision. Everything happened when a vulture hit the front part of the helicopter in which they were flying. The Bird Committee members composed of more than 10 institutions, such as: AAC, ANAM, Ministry of Health, believe that there are other ways of managing the problem.

They suggest finishing with the big quantity of unexpected dumps of garbage that are in the surroundings of the routes of flight. This is the case of Juan Díaz River.

Esteban Godinez, a biologist with special knowledge in Bird Hazards, affirmed that in Panama and America there are more than 40 bird species that represent a threat to air safety. Godinez confirmed that among these species there are two that, due to its big size, have turned into the most dangerous for the aviation. These are the Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures. The last one is protected under the International Migratory bird Treaty.

During October and November, these types of birds migrate from North America to South America.

They cross the isthmus in a stripe of not more than 16 kilometers wide, being a special hazard to aviation.

Whenever a bird crashes with some part of an aircraft, as for example the wings, nose or engines, the airlines suffer millionaire losses. Although the air companies do not submit specific reports about aircraft repair expenses, it is known for example, that the repair of an engine may exceed B/. 1.5 million.

In order to reduce bird strikes and avoid huge losses, the International Airport of Tocumen has recently installed an innovative bird dispersal system, known as Claws. This tool combines the sounds produced by a propane cannon with those emitted by different acoustic effects, of different nature, to assure that birds never get accustomed to the equipment.

Melquíades Ramos, a Technician at the ANAM Department of Protected Areas and Wild Lives, explains that the work of that institution is to issue hunting and bird control permits. Those permits should be renewed every three months and allow to scare away birds by means of fireworks and flares that do not affect the environment.

The wildlife technician wanted to make clear that those permits do not allow hunting all kind of birds.
Ramos specifies that they are only for birds such as black vulture, chango, cattle egret, Great – tailed grackle (talingo) and the columba livia (Rock pigeon).

According to Ramos, the only places within the Capital area that have these permits are Tocumen International Airport, Marcos A. Gelabert in Albrook and Howard’s.

Ramos also explains that ANAM not only grants the hunting and bird control permits but also verifies that all poultry companies that operate within the airports lineal perimeter, as in the case of Juan Díaz, fulfill the Peru's environmental operating agreement (known by its Spanish acronym, PAMA).

In this sense, Zoroel Díaz, from AAC, requested the Department of Health to put more pressure on those companies that break the norms established in PAMA.

Extracted from: Click Here

Irma Elena Mordok
Panama, America