Mahnoor Jeewa

Airplane Lab Report

Effects of Height and Time on the European Starling, Red Tailed Hawk, and the Barn Swallow
between 2015-2019
Bio 202
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Introduction:
The Federal Aviation Administration National Wildlife Strike Database consists of records
ranking the relative hazards of wildlife to aircraft. These strikes are increasing everywhere within
the United States and outside. The numbers have gone from 1,800 to 16,000 from 1990 to 2018.
In order to better understand the increase in wildlife strikes the FAA and USDA have been
collecting data to help understand the overall nature of the problem. In order to do so the data
being collected is open to the public for strikes reports to be submitted. Since the data is open to
the public, I wanted to better understand the correlations between a few factors.

The experiment I decided on consists of statistical data explaining the correlation between height
over a period of 4 years from 2015 to 2019 between 3 different species of animals. The animals
being compared were the European Starling, Red Tailed Hawk, and the Barn Swallow because I
wanted to compare birds instead of land animals like mule deer and coyote. I hypothesize that
majority of the strikes occurred before takeoff during the dark hours. I chose to compare height
over a period of time because in order to understand the relative hazards of wildlife to aircraft we
must narrow down variables which are causing them. It is important to be aware of and
understand issues as such because statistics can help with developing effectual management
programs. The original article Interspecific Variation in Wildlife Hazards to Aircraft:
Implications for Airport Wildlife Management mentions, “We summarized data for 77 species or
species groups with ≥20 records where collisions occurred ≤500 ft (152 m) above ground level.”
After reading this statement, I have a certainty that my hypothesis regarding majority of the
strikes to occur before takeoff will be accepted.

Methods:
Using the FAA data set I chose a question I could test and create a hypothesis for.
Once certain about which question to experiment on, in a lab notebook sketch out a predicted
graph for the experiment. Create a new excel spreadsheet and copy and paste the data from the
Wildlife spreadsheet to your own. Once you have all the data needed, using the data create a
graph. If you are experimenting on more than two groups and are having difficulty layering the
graphs than you might have to create separate graphs for each group. After creating the graphs,
you will be selecting a Statistical test which best fits the experiment. If your experiment consists
of more than two groups, then you will use the Anova Statistical Test. A statistical test provides
enough information or evidence which can reject or accept the hypothesis. In order to run a
statistical test, you will need to input the multiple sets of data for each group into the bottom of
the spread sheet. As soon as the data is input correctly, the information needed for the statistical
sentence will appear and will help determine whether the hypothesis is significant or not. The
statistical sentence is "There [was or wasn't] a significant difference in [independent variable]
between [groups] (F [between groups degrees of freedom, within groups degrees of freedom] =
[F value], p= [p value]." The square brackets are where you need to fill in the blanks. On the
Anova test the highlighted sections will be the inputs in the sentence. Those spaces are for the
degrees of freedom, Fs, and P values. In the end, if the P value is less than 0.5 then there was no
significant difference. On the other hand, if the P value is above 0.5 there was a significant
difference.
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Results:
There wasn't a significant difference in height between the European Starling, Red tail Hawks,
and the Barn Swallow (F[2,104] = 0.24, p= 0.787.
The results from the bar graphs did however conclude that majority of the accidents occurred
before the planes took off. They also supported my hypothesis about strikes occurring during the
dark hours.

European Starling
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M
6A 7A 8A 8A 9A 9A 10A 11A 4P 4P 5P 6P 6P 6P 6P 7P

Figure 1. shows the height and time at

which the European Starling came in
contact with airplanes.

Red Tail Hawk

250

200

150

100

50

0
M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M
6 6A 7A 9A 10A 11A 11A 11A 12P 12P 12P 1P 2P 3P 3P 3P 3P 3P 4P 5P 6P
A

Figure 2 shows the height and time at

which the Red Tail Hawks came in
contact with airplanes.
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Barn Swallow
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M
5 7A 7A 8A 9A 9A 10A 10A 10A 11A 11A 12P 12P 2P 3P 4P 5P 7P
A

Figure 3 shows the height and time at

which the Barn Swallow came in
contact with airplanes.

Discussion:
The hypothesis I created for this experiment, regarding majority of the strikes occurring before
takeoff and during the dark hours was accepted. The results from the bar graphs prove this.
However, the Anova Statistical test concluded that there wasn't a significant difference in height
between the European Starling, Red tail Hawks, and the Barn Swallow (F[2,104] = 0.24, p= 0.787. I
expected to find a correlation between time of day and airstrike due to the fact that there is less
natural light, making it harder to see smaller objects. The first reported strike was on September
7, 1905 and it is January 28, 2020. The FAA and USDA have come a long way trying to find
solutions which can help decrease the number of strikes. Experiments and tests using the data
from the reported strikes are what can help slowly decrease these strikes and protect the wildlife
from endangerment. Hopefully, experiments as such can help this process speed along. The
results of this experiment signify that aircrafts should take more precautions in the later hours of
the day before taking off. This significance should help reduce the number of airstrikes globally.

Literature Cited:

Devault, Travis L., et al. “Interspecific Variation in Wildlife Hazards to Aircraft: Implications
for Airport Wildlife Management.” Wildlife Society Bulletin, vol. 35, no. 4, 2011, pp. 394–402.,
doi:10.1002/wsb.75.

Metscher, Donald & Coyne, Bill & Reardon, John. (2008). An Analysis of the Barriers Found in
Reporting Wildlife Strike Incidents to the FAA National Wildlife Strike Database for Civilian
Aviation.

Dolbeer, Richard. (2013). The history of wildlife strikes and management at airports. Pages 1-6.
Wildlife in Airport Environments: Preventing Animal-Aircraft Collisions through Science-based
Management.