Small Shocks Help Enormous Birds Learn to Avoid Power Lines
This article talks about how enormous birds must learn to avoid power lines to avoid being electrocuted. Condors, an endangered specie of bird, usually fail to look ahead when flying and searching for food. This causes them to run into power lines and get electrocuted. Even if they are looking ahead, they sometimes land on the power lines and sit on two lines, versus sitting on one, which most small birds do, which causes them to get electrocuted too. Scientists and conservationists in California want to teach large birds like this to not sit on these power lines and to look ahead while flying by aversion training, meaning that if a large bird gets near a power line, a small, mild shock is transmitted from the line to the bird, teaching the bird to avoid such areas to sit.
Georgia has it’s own set of large birds, including the Rough Legged Hawk and the Golden Eagle, which fly around the state. What kind of things can Georgians do to protect our local fauna?
