Saving Animals

After I learned about saving wild mustangs on the web pages of the Bureau of Land Management, I surfed other Bureaus of the Department of the Interior, which in turn led to browsing web sites of various foundations and conservancies dedicated to saving wild life.

While wars rage across the planet, one is hard pressed to think of saving wild life when rivers of refugees stream from country to country, seeking safety from falling bombs.

As a child growing up in a small river town in the middle of the country's agricultural area, the only time we saw exotic animals like elephants, giraffes, monkeys, lions and tigers was when the circus came to town and in later years, visits to zoos and aquariums. In those long ago days, the thought that giraffes might become extinct was as absurd as believing in Buck Roger's space adventures.

In the high school class room where we studied biology, the walls were lined with shelves holding stuffed birds of all description. The room was also used by college students and it was assumed that college students studied them, but in those days, birds were the least of my concerns; Robbins were just a familiar sight as they hunted for earthworms in the lawns we passed on our way to school.

It wasn't until I browsed the American Bird Conservancy web site that I learned about bird safe glass. The N. Y. Audubon group has been monitoring the base of a dozen buildings, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Warner Center, for bird kills since 1990. Its estimated that 90,000 birds die each year after flying into glass facades. The solution is bird safe glass.

There are several approaches to creating bird safe glass, silkscreen coating and ultraviolet patterns birds can see, but humans can't. A German company created ultraviolet patterns inspired by the reflective silk strands of spider webs. regardless of techniques used in making the glass, research shows that spacing is even more important. If patterns are placed 2" apart horizontally, and 4" apart vertically, birds will not fly into the glass. Birds will not fly through spaces that are less than 2" high, or 4" wide.

There are hundreds of web sites dedicated to saving birds and more than an equal number dedicated to saving all manner of wild life. Knowing that species come and go, we may not prevent the demise of some. If humans continue to kill humans, AND, continue to search for ways to do so, maybe our species will be the first to go.



ORNILUX
bird safety glass