Are props & gear only way to remove airport wildlife?

Ed Haywood said:
Maybe harass them by chasing with a 4WD vehicle until they decide the grass is tastier elsewhere?
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The darned things won't hardly jump a fence. They usually push under the fence at a weak point but the fence is miles long, hard to find without a cowboy. We need to push them through a gate or cut the fence.
Or, long distance lead injection.
You are right about the better feed; airport grass is good but outside the pastures are all et up.
 
I don't know anything about them, but if they are in the goat family they probably don't taste good. My second guess is that they don't like coyotes. And I'd personally much rather land into a coyote than either a goat or a deer.
 
Would any of the local golf courses loan you one to two of the stuffed predators (coyotes or whatever those not-antelopes are naturally afraid of)?

you can have some fun moving the stuffed predators around occasionally (depending on how easily your are amused)
 
Albany Tom said:
I don't know anything about them, but if they are in the goat family they probably don't taste good. My second guess is that they don't like coyotes. And I'd personally much rather land into a coyote than either a goat or a deer.
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My pal totaled a 210 on a coyote coming out of El Paso one night :(
 
Until you get rid of the fence, the problem really can't be solved. The damn things act more like a trap than a deterrent.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
My pal totaled a 210 on a coyote coming out of El Paso one night :(
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That's awful. We do have those around here but I personally have not seen any on an airport. Did it cause loss of control by being hit by one of the main gear legs? Asking because I think they only weigh about 40 lbs. Completely believe that this happened, but would have thought it would have plenty of time to get out of the way, and that they wouldn't cause loss of directional control.

Here my runway concern is white tailed deer, which as I'm sure you know typically travel in groups of 3-4 or more, and are often either too stupid to get out of the way of anything, or they get clogged up in their exit plan leaving tail end charlie in the middle of the road.
 
One year, at the F-class Long Range Rifle National Championships, at the Whittington Center near Raton, NM, competition was halted to clear a buck and a few doe pronghorn that were milling about at 900yds downrange. We had about 90 competitors firing at the 1000yd line with the bullets clearing the animals by about 15ft. They could care less. The range officers got in a pick up and chased them around for about 20 minutes until they decided to vacate. On day 3, the same thing happened with a few mule deer. Once they acclimate to the sounds and goings on, wildlife can be quite comfortable in situations that would make humans balk.
 
robin ardoin said:
One year, at the F-class Long Range Rifle National Championships, at the Whittington Center near Raton, NM, competition was halted to clear a buck and a few doe pronghorn that were milling about at 900yds downrange. We had about 90 competitors firing at the 1000yd line with the bullets clearing the animals by about 15ft. They could care less. The range officers got in a pick up and chased them around for about 20 minutes until they decided to vacate. On day 3, the same thing happened with a few mule deer. Once they acclimate to the sounds and goings on, wildlife can be quite comfortable in situations that would make humans balk.
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The deer that wander onto Army machinegun ranges sometimes do not fare as well.
 
Albany Tom said:
That's awful. We do have those around here but I personally have not seen any on an airport. Did it cause loss of control by being hit by one of the main gear legs?
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As I recall, as he rotated there was a large female bolting across 8L (that's the short runway a long way from people and lights) at KELP in the dark and it nailed the nosegear.
I'm getting the details messed up I'm sure, but next landing (maybe he couldn't raise or lower the gear?) the nosegear collapsed and then you have propstrike, engine teardown, cowling repair......in an older 210 it quickly becomes a total. I did hear that somehow it was repaired by whoever the insurance co sold to it to and flew again.
 
jesse said:
Until you get rid of the fence, the problem really can't be solved. The damn things act more like a trap than a deterrent.
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How would we then keep livestock off the runway Jesse? The airport abuts thousands of acres of ranchland.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
How would we then keep livestock off the runway Jesse? The airport abuts thousands of acres of ranchland.
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I've seen plenty of airports in ranchland that aren't fenced. For an example, take a look at Culberson County to your north. Either adapt the fence with openings that allow smaller wildlife but stops cattle, or, just get rid of the damn thing. The deer in Wisconsin are more thick than the cattle are in your area, and the only time I've almost hit a deer is with fenced in airports.
 
GaryM said:
Bravo to everyone on the thread for not calling them pronghorn antelope Because they aren’t antelope. Even though people seem to insist on calling them that.
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From https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Pronghorn we read:

Pronghorn are ungulates (hoofed animals) and related to goats and antelope.

Related to antelope. Hm.

From https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/pronghorn we find that their scientific name is suspiciously antelopish:

  • Scientific Name
    Antilocarpa americana

Probably misspelled. Other sites have it Antilocapra americana.

From https://www.aiwc.ca/blog/antelope-in-alberta-pronghorn-species-profile/ we get:

Though we commonly call them pronghorn antelopes, pronghorns are more closely related to giraffes than antelopes.

Amazing. I knew that, but needed a citation, so I looked elsewhere: https://www.britannica.com/animal/giraffe and saw this:

The only close relative of the giraffe is the rainforest-dwelling okapi, which is the only other member of the family Giraffidae. G. camelopardalis or something very similar lived in Tanzania two million years ago, but Giraffidae branched off from other members of the order Artiodactyla—cattle, antelope, and deer—about 34 million years ago.

Lots of pronghorns here in southern Saskatchewan.
 
Half Fast said:
Interesting. So is the flavor similar to giraffe?
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Never tasted either. The local hunters here aren't in the habit of shooting pronghorns for meat. Too many whitetail and mule deer available.

Closest I came to a giraffe was in a game park in Botswana, Africa. They were taller than the one or two I've seen in zoos. Saw a few in Kruger Park, South Africa, too, at some distance. More impressive were the bull elephants on the road, dwarfing the cars. Elephants you see in the circus are the much smaller Asian elephant.

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From Wiki we get this:

The African bush elephant is the largest terrestrial animal. Under optimal conditions where individuals are capable of reaching full growth potential, mature fully grown females are 2.47–2.73 m (8 ft 1 in – 8 ft 11 in) tall at the shoulder and weigh 2,600–3,500 kg (5,700–7,700 lb), while mature fully grown bulls are 3.04–3.36 m (10.0–11.0 ft) tall and weigh 5,200–6,900 kg (11,500–15,200 lb) on average. The largest recorded bull stood 3.96 m (13.0 ft) at the shoulder and is estimated to have weighed 10,400 kg (22,900 lb).

Don't annoy these fellows. They will trash you and your car.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
As I recall, as he rotated there was a large female bolting across 8L (that's the short runway a long way from people and lights) at KELP in the dark and it nailed the nosegear.
I'm getting the details messed up I'm sure, but next landing (maybe he couldn't raise or lower the gear?) the nosegear collapsed and then you have propstrike, engine teardown, cowling repair......in an older 210 it quickly becomes a total. I did hear that somehow it was repaired by whoever the insurance co sold to it to and flew again.
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Ah... I was thinking landing, and not thinking about the retractable part.
 
flyingron said:
I operated for a few years out of the Philips Army Air Field which is inside the restricted area at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Deer are always a problem as unless they get clobbered by some wayward ordinance, they don't have any natural enemies in there (except when they do allow hunters to come in and cull). Especially during rutting season, the standard procedure is to make low passes over the runway (sorry, Trevor) to scare them off.
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I land at a few grass strips with no fences. Most have notams to over fly the field before landing to check for wild life.
A couple weeks ago I was landing at one when a deer ran across the field right in front of me landing. I just pulled up a little and floated down past him as I had 4100' to land on.

Last fall during a evening landing at I61 I didn't over fly the grass field. There was group of deer grazing in a cut down corn field next to the runway. One of those darn things come running out of that field chasing me like dog chasing a car. Scared me pretty good. I will definitely over fly that field from now on especially at dusk.
For me what is becoming a concern is the increase of turkey vultures we have in the area now. They are big birds that fly around our runway.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
How would we then keep livestock off the runway Jesse? The airport abuts thousands of acres of ranchland.
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Gaps in fence with cattle guards. Seen anything from rectangular tubing to old rail road rail. IMG_1217.jpeg
 
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Racerx said:
Gaps in fence with cattle guards. Seen anything from rectangular tubing to old rail road rail. View attachment 141812
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Then we have uninvited vehicles on the runway!
Yeah, no way the adjacent ranchers are going to allow the fence to come down, and that would mean wildlife and livestock on the airport property.
I’ve finally found someone to tranquillize & relocate them.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I’ve finally found someone to tranquillize & relocate them.
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They use them in the national forest. Cattle won't cross them, work great for cattle. Not so great for sheep and goats. Vehicle thing, yeah. That's an issue.

Whod you get to come out and relocate?
 
A typical cattle fence is zero hindrance to wildlife. They'll hop right over it.
 
Gary Ward said:
I land at a few grass strips with no fences.
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Most fences will not affect deer. You need two tall fences close together to really dissuade them.

Hell, the fence around our secure area didn't stop a gung ho enlisted Army guy from jumping over it to retrieve the volleyball that went out of bounds. (Once the security office found out he was doing that they banned playing volleyball in the restricted area).
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Then we have uninvited vehicles on the runway!
Yeah, no way the adjacent ranchers are going to allow the fence to come down, and that would mean wildlife and livestock on the airport property.
I’ve finally found someone to tranquillize & relocate them.
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I did a photoshoot with a company that does this with an R66, Tango82 Aviation. Pretty cool operation. I'm sure it's not cheap though.

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Ed Haywood said:
There is a famous restaurant in Nairobi, Kenya called Carnivore. This and many other questions can be answered there.
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The only have a few game meets on each night. The time I was there it was Ostrich, Crocodile and Kudu.

Better was a brai (BBQ) in Namibia that had about 5 types of game meat to chose from. My favorite is Sable.
 
The difference being, your spouses are smart enough not to walk around on a runway while planes are landing.
 
The NY state DEC is actually quite cooperative when it comes to removing wildlife that is a hazard to aviation safety. We do try to use non-lethal means first, however. Transient and resident geese have been a periodic problem at our airport, with a pond off the north end. The DEC was happy with us using lethal means to alleviate the issue, if necessary, but we found that some appropriately placed low wires around the pond edge and a few rubber wolves that get moved around periodically do a decent job. I do a double-take every time a taxi out to take off on RWY 17 when I see the rubber wolves in the grass. The guys who mow the airport move them around each week, so you never know where they will show up.
 
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