Bird collisions with the glass walls of paddle tennis courts worry environmental organizations and some administrations after several conservation associations have warned of the increase in mortality linked to the rise of this sport. The birds are not able to distinguish the glass surface of these tracks, they collide and end up dying. Several complaints have reached the public ministry in recent years, which describes this type of glazing as a “serious threat to birds.” To the point that the person in charge of the environmental area of the State Attorney General’s Office, Antonio Vercher, has sent a letter to all his colleagues in the provincial prosecutor’s offices specialized in these same issues in which he proposes that to address this problem make use of the latest reform of the Penal Code, approved in March of this year, which expands the cases of abuse beyond domestic animals. This reform allows criminal prosecution of attacks committed against wild vertebrates, such as birds that collide with the walls of paddle tennis courts.
In the letter, which was sent this Monday, Vercher points directly to the new article 340 bis, which contemplates sentences of between six and 18 months in prison for those who mistreat a wild “vertebrate animal” in the event that, in addition, they cause death. Furthermore, the coordinating prosecutor emphasizes the importance of “the competent administrations proceeding to promote whatever measures are” necessary for the “preservation of fauna” and to “prevent or reduce these collisions,” which extend to other types of surfaces with glazing such as buildings and acoustic screens. Until this latest reform of the Penal Code, criminal action could only be taken when it came to protected species.
Although the coordinating environmental prosecutor considers these surfaces a serious threat to birds, he recognizes the difficulty in knowing the real extent of this mortality due, among other reasons, because, according to the letter, “the remains are frequently removed by private individuals in charge of the aforementioned facilities, by cleaning services or by natural predators”, such as cats.
But it is estimated that millions of birds die around the world due to impacts against glass and other surfaces invisible to them, which also include acoustic screens on roads or railings, in addition to the aforementioned sports facilities and glass buildings. “Birds do not see the wall they are heading against, either because it is transparent, something that happens to us too, or because it is like a mirror that reflects the surrounding sky and the vegetation, and they think: ‘there is a tree’ ”explains Beatriz Sánchez, head of the urban biodiversity program at the ornithology NGO SEO/BirdLife.
Although in Spain there are no official records of these deaths and it is a phenomenon little studied in Europe, SEO/BirdLife has compiled the number of birds that enter the fauna recovery centers of the autonomous communities due to collisions with glass windows: 1,002 between 2008 and 2018. “Evidently, the specimens that are collected and moved represent a small percentage of those affected, which does not give the dimension of the problem,” says Sánchez.
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In the United States, where it is recognized as one of the main causes of mortality, a 2014 study by the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that between 365 million and one billion birds lose their lives due to collisions with buildings. According to Canadian Government estimates, between 16 and 42 million die there for the same reason. Data that gives a dimension of the problem.
The complaints received by SEO/BirdLife point to the transparent walls of paddle tennis courts as one of the main problems in Spain, due to the boom experienced by this sport and the increase in facilities. It is essential to choose the construction site, because many of the tracks that generate mortality are on the outskirts of small towns, near a stream or a forest, in areas of abundant biodiversity.
In his writing, Vercher reviews some of the initiatives that some administrations and organizations have been taking, such as those taken by the governments of Aragon, where in 2019 a project began to include protections on paddle tennis courts, or the Valencian Community. Although he adds that “until now it has been confirmed that the effectiveness of the measures to avoid these collisions is practically zero.”
Possible solutions
One of the possible solutions is the installation of stickers, but they must cover the glass sufficiently. Because “placing raptor stickers to dissuade birds that there is a predator is useless if large gaps are left,” adds Sánchez. There are also anti-collision strips, opaque vertical stripes that are placed on the windows, leaving a distance of less than ten centimeters between them. “It’s what we call the palm rule, which means not leaving gaps larger than that size,” clarifies this SEO/BirdLife expert.
One of the most interesting, simple and cheap remedies for paddle tennis courts, which does not bother players or spectators and keeps birds away, is the placement of nets around the transparent walls. The birds see them, interpret it as a danger and move away. This system has been successfully tested in Valencia and at the Pablo Olavide University in Seville, which has paddle tennis courts in an area rich in birds, near a lagoon. Dead specimens of blackbirds, swallows, blackcaps, warblers and kingfishers, among other species, had been detected there. The system has ensured that not one more death occurs due to collision. Regarding newly created infrastructures and buildings, the SEO/BirdLife technique advocates “studying where they are located and their orientation” as a premise to avoid deaths. In addition to adding existing solutions from the beginning, for example, there are already anti-collision glasses on the market, which are manufactured with an internal weave that is visible to birds and invisible to humans.
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