Michigan's Traverse City Airport uses a border collie to shoo away birds

Michigan's Traverse City Airport uses a border collie to shoo away birds Birds are a menace in airports and in Michigan's Traverse City Airport (Cherry Capital Airport) and it has witnessed 37 bird strikes and even one skunk strike between 2010 and 2015. Hence, in order to shoo away the birds, the airport has roped in a border collie whose job is to drive away the birds. As indicated by his trainer, Piper the border collie has chased off 2430 birds that year. This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 23 February 2016

He wears a ski mask to protect his eyes from wind, and also boots to protect his paws from the hot tarmac and, needless to say, has attracted lot of attention in his hometown and abroad. This bred of dogs are natural herders and Piper was imparted special training to be able to tolerate aircraft noise. He dons custom-made "MuffMutts" to protect his hearing.
His duty is four 10-hour shifts a week, on a rotating basis, with plenty of dog biscuit breaks. He had first been trialed as a Wildlife Control K-9 in 2014 and now looks after aircraft safety by shooing away birds.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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