A squad of twenty pigs is being tested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport as a means of keeping geese away and averting ‘bird strikes’ when the geese are sucked into jet engines, potentially damaging the plane or forcing it to land.
Two areas have been selected for the test, according to the Dutch newspaper Telegraaf. One area is patrolled by the pigs, rented from a farm that trains and supplies pigs for farm-based environmental projects; the other is pigless. The results for the two areas will be compared over a six-week period, with data collected by bird radar and human observers. The two-acre plots were used to grow sugar beets, and the pigs are eating the harvest remnants.
The airport also uses a number of other methods to control the birds, who are responsible for dozens of incidents each year, including planting types of grass that geese don’t like, and twenty wardens who patrol the area with laser beams, sound devices and more. In the past, there have also been mass culls of the geese.
