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Patterns of Mammal Incidents with U.S. Civil AircraftBiondi, Kristin Michele 15 December 2012 (has links)
Wildlife collisions with U.S. civil aircraft (hereafter incidents) pose safety and economic concerns. Terrestrial mammals represented only 2.3% of wildlife incidents, but 59% of these incidents caused damage to aircraft. I examined 2,558 incidents in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Wildlife Strike Database to characterize and analyze overall mammal incidents by airport type, emphasizing white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and bat incidents with U.S. civil aircraft. Mammal incidents caused 5 times greater damage than other wildlife which varied by airport type and appeared associated with species’ behavior. I provided relative hazard scores to determine which species were most hazardous to aircraft. Relative hazard increased with increasing body mass with mule deer (O. hemionus), white-tailed deer and domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) most hazardous to aircraft. White-tailed deer caused 6 times greater damage than all other wildlife and are hazardous to aircraft. In contrast, bats posed a low hazard to aircraft.
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