New Zealand wildlife clinic urges dimming lights to save birds
Charity hospital says light pollution causes injury and grounding among native species
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ISTANBUL
A wildlife clinic in Auckland, New Zealand’s most populous city, has called for city lights to be dimmed on cloudy nights to protect native seabirds, local media reported Tuesday.
BirdCare Aotearoa, a veterinary hospital treating injured seabirds, said urban light pollution -- especially from landmarks such as the Harbour Bridge and Sky Tower -- disorients juvenile birds, often leading to injuries or grounding, according to RNZ News.
Catriona Robertson, a hospital staff member, said groundings occur most often on overcast or rainy nights when the moon is obscured and city lights reflect off the clouds.
"Driving at night in the rain we've probably all experienced the way the lights flare off a little bit more than usual, so for these guys it's a confusion factor where they think they're heading towards the moon or some sort of light source that would usually guide them home and then they crash-land,” she told RNZ.
She explained that seabirds rely on elevated spots like cliffs to take flight, so when they end up grounded in urban areas, it's hard for them to become airborne again. Upon crash-landing, they may injure themselves, lose their waterproofing quickly and have difficulty finding food.
Many of the seabirds treated by the clinic are juvenile petrels, including the nationally vulnerable black petrel.
Studies in New Zealand and abroad have found that the flicker and blue spectrum of LED lights are especially attractive to seabirds, worsening the problem, the report said.
