“There needs to be a law to protect wild birds.”
Wild birds collide with ‘transparent facilities’ in various parts of downtown Incheon, leading to death.
According to Bupyeong-gu, Incheon, on the 8th, complaints were received that birds were killed by colliding with the transparent outer wall installed at the badminton court in Wonjeoksan Park, Bupyeong-gu, Incheon.
The complainant said, “There are more than 10 tracks of collisions of birds I have seen in a day (at the badminton court),” he said.
Wonjeoksan Park is a sports park in nature built on the way to Wonjeoksan Mountain (211m above sea level) on an area of 215,000㎡.
In fact, in the badminton court in the park, an external wall made of transparent material was installed along with a steel structure to act as a windbreak.
Birds chirping continued around the badminton court surrounded by forest, and there were traces of bird impact on the upper part of the outer wall.
It is known that the exterior wall of the badminton court was newly installed in 2017, but it has been confirmed that no special measures have been taken to protect birds.
Park Joo-hee, secretary general of the Incheon Green Coalition, pointed out, “There is a facility that drives birds to death in a park created to allow humans and nature to coexist.
It was also found that the damage from bird collisions was severe in the transparent soundproof wall installed between the apartment complex in Incheon and the road.
Previously, the National Institute of Ecology under the Ministry of Environment monitored the transparent sound barrier around a certain apartment in Guwol-dong, Namdong-gu, Incheon 17 times from October 2019 to January this year.
As a result, it was found that 133 birds, including turtledoves and blackbirds, collided with the soundproof wall and died.
This means that an average of 7 to 8 cadavers were found per monitoring.
The Incheon Green Coalition affiliated organization ‘Ecology Education Center Irang’ explained that collision damage was occurring one after another in areas where transparent soundproof walls were installed, such as an apartment in Nonhyeon-dong, Namdong-gu, Incheon and an elementary school in Seo-gu.
Of the 413 bird-related rescue requests received by the Incheon Wildlife Rescue Management Center last year, 146 (35%) were crash-related reports.
When most birds collide with transparent facilities, they are not able to reduce their flight speed and are shocked and have a high probability of death.
Previously, the Ministry of Environment estimated that 8 million birds die in collision accidents in Korea annually by analyzing statistics on buildings, transparent sound barriers, and the rate of carcass detection.
The Ministry of Environment recommends attaching anti-collision stickers, etc., taking advantage of the fact that birds do not attempt to fly in a space of 5 cm in height and 10 cm in width.
Incheon City has recently delivered guidelines on how to reduce bird collisions to each county and district, but the actual situation surveys or in-house projects to prevent damage are minimal.
An official from the National Institute of Ecology said, “Even though interest in bird collision prevention is increasing, a systematic response is still lacking.
/yunhap news
