Client | Vancouver International Airport YVR
Location | Vancouver, Canada
Service | On-site active wildlife management and Canine dispersal team
YVR has 280,000 movements per annum and operates three runways. Our on-site active wildlife management includes the dispersal of more than one million birds annually. We provide on-ground delivery through a team of 16 wildlife biologists and trained wildlife management technicians (WMT) 24/7, with increased coverage in winter when tens of thousands of geese, ducks, shorebirds and other birds descend on the Fraser River delta.
This program, arguably the best resourced airport wildlife program in the world, requires sophisticated coordination of the various world-leading innovations, including the use of dogs, falconry, boats and hovercraft on the foreshore areas to disperse birds.
Avisure has two specially trained dogs and their handlers to manage wildlife hazards. Using dogs as dispersal tools attempts to mitigate wildlife habituation to standard dispersal tools.
Coyotes are a particular problem for the airport. Formerly, this was addressed by chasing them around the aerodrome in an attempt to herd them through the gates. Now, following our review, the coyotes are now tolerated airside and ‘trained’ to avoid runways, with the added benefit that they now contribute to mitigating the strike risk by preying on the bird population.
Avisure’s success is reflected in how we meet, and often exceed, our key performance indicators (KPIs).