Wire marking results in a small but significant reduction in avian mortality at power lines: a BACI designed study.

Collision with electric power lines is a conservation problem for many bird species. Although the implementation of flight diverters is rapidly increasing, few well-designed studies supporting the effectiveness of this costly conservation measure have been published. We provide information on the largest worldwide marking experiment to date, including carcass searches at 35 (15 experimental, 20 control) power lines totalling 72.5 km, at both transmission (220 kV) and distribution (15 kV–45 kV) lines. We observed a small (9.6%) but significant decrease in the number of casualties after line marking compared to before line marking in experimental lines. This was not observed in control lines. We found no influence of either marker size (large vs. small spirals, sample of distribution lines only) or power line type (transmission vs. distribution, sample of large spirals only) on the collision rate when we analyzed all species together. However, great bustard mortality was slightly lower when lines were marked with large spirals and in transmission lines after marking. Our results confirm the overall effectiveness of wire marking as a way to reduce, but not eliminate, bird collisions with power lines. If raw field data are not corrected by carcass losses due to scavengers and missed observations, findings may be biased.

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Barrientos R. Ponce C. Palacín C. Martín C.A. Martín B. y Alonso J.C. Wire marking results in a small but significant reduction in avian mortality at power lines: a BACI designed study. Public Library of Science, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032569

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Resource type Text
Date of creation 2024-12-02
Date of last revision 2025-01-20
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Metadata identifier e1c249a1-119d-5f68-8a3e-dec29085ac39
Metadata language Spanish
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ISO 19115 topic category biota
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Name of the dataset creator Barrientos, R., Ponce, C., Palacín, C., Martín, C.A., Martín, B. y Alonso, J.C.
Name of the dataset editor Public Library of Science
Other identifier DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0032569
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