Dublin Airport Hares and birds!

Locker10a

Evening guys,

I have just been pointed to a video on youtube where hares can be seen running around the active runway while aircraft are taking off/landing! There are also numbers birds, which i know has alway been a problem @ DUB, however I am very surprised by the amount of hares and their nonchalance towards the aircraft!
I recall a friend telling me about being delayed once as a hare had become mangled in the landing gear during landing at DUB but i didn't realise they were so prominent on the airfield !
Has anyone had run-ins with them?
You only need to watch the first 3-4 mins of the video to see them

Growler!!!

A skipper in ORK had a run in with a fox one night. Nothing but a few smears on the undercarriage.

How do you know they are hares? Cos it's a "hare"port!!! God, I hated when an ex captain of ours used to say that!

afatbollix

Not much you can do, infact I think they are protected.

Poochie05

There were 2 of them hanging around in the grass as we were waiting for our turn to take off last week, completely unphased by the noise or size of the aircraft all around them.

Irish Steve

There are significant numbers of hares around the control tower and hangars over by the Boot Inn, and I've seen several exploring the vehicles parked outside the hangars on quite a few occasions. Movement and noise don't seem to bother them at all

It was also common to see hares around the remote stands areas, especially at night and in the early hours of the morning, though I suspect that's changed a bit now with the increased areas of tarmac since the T2 and Pier D changes in recent years

Gaoth Laidir

At one point I could see 6 hares along the railing while parked at the layby at the side of R28 a few months ago. Nice to watch how they interact with each other. They seem to have a very social setup there. Maybe they're just like the humans collected there and are all aviation geeks too!

Hares represent a much lower risk than birds as they are a 2-D rather than a 3-D risk (confined to the ground).

eatmyshorts

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

At one point I could see 6 hares along the railing while parked at the layby at the side of R28 a few months ago. Nice to watch how they interact with each other. They seem to have a very social setup there. Maybe they're just like the humans collected there and are all aviation geeks too!

Hares represent a much lower risk than birds as they are a 2-D rather than a 3-D risk (confined to the ground).

The airport is overrun with them, but to be honest they keep to themselves and are not a problem.
Once had to stop on the Bravo taxiway due to 2 hares sitting in the middle of it. ATC asked what they were doing, to which my FO replied... "err, they appear to be riding"

eatmyshorts

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Hares represent a much lower risk than birds as they are a 2-D rather than a 3-D risk (confined to the ground).

Yesterday's EK161 suffered several birdstrikes. Ek162 was cancelled. Aircraft still in Dublin awaiting repair before returning to Dubai.

dazed+confused

afatbollix wrote:

Not much you can do, infact I think they are protected.

No they have a season and a derogation could be sought outside of the season if they were causing a problem.

PukkaStukka

eatmyshorts wrote: »

The airport is overrun with them, but to be honest they keep to themselves and are not a problem.
Once had to stop on the Bravo taxiway due to 2 hares sitting in the middle of it. ATC asked what they were doing, to which my FO replied... "err, they appear to be riding"

Clearly they either weren't issued with, or ignored, a "hold short" instruction.. :pac:

Joking aside, I narrowly avoided hitting a hare out cycling near the Boot Inn one Sunday. One cannot appreciate how large they can be until being up close and personal. This particular chap was the very big and would've caused both he and I a lot of bother had we collided.

roundymac

Quite common in Cork as well and I suspect in all airports as no one is activly hunting them apart from the odd fox. They are large some of them and if one got sucked into the engine would do a lot of damage.

ProfessorPlum

I had a harestrike on landing early one morning a while back. The dam thing stopped on the centre line and must have been dazed by the lights - it just wouldn't move (- despite me imploring it to!). The subsequent report to ATC descended into a pretty funny 'Watership Down' banter.

Chris_5339762

I've seen four of them in a pile under the warm engine of a car in the Quickpark carpark. Big buggers.

They're protected in anycase, so they can't just go outside with guns and shoot them all.

donkey balls

Ah the Dublin airport hares that are the same size as a medium size dog:D I remember going through post 4 and there was a hare on the taxi way line at 410,An EI flight was holding short while the DAA ops chased it around.
The mad thing thought it was a game of chasing they are definitely not afraid of humans as I do see them at the smoking sheds across from post 4,One day a few of them gathered around the aircraft I was working on I shouted at them messing they stood on their hind legs and just starred at me.(probably saying what are you looking at bud:p)

NH2013

Apparently you'll often find them huddled up in by the wheels of the aircraft on parking stands first thing in the morning asleep, apparently the wing/wheel structure gives them shelter from the rain/wind and there's a lot of warmth off of the brakes from the last flight of the night as well to keep them warm.

jimbis

Drove down the road past the boot inn early one summer morning and no joking at all the road was covered in them. Easily around 150 of them running back and forth or just chilled out on the road. The car didn't bother them either.

IRLConor

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

They're protected in anycase, so they can't just go outside with guns and shoot them all.

They're in season until the end of the month, so they could be freely shot at the moment.

On the other hand, it's pretty difficult to take a safe shot somewhere like an airfield. It's very flat (so no hills or banks to use as a backstop) and it's surrounded on several sides by busy roads, taxiways, terminals, and other things you shouldn't shoot towards. It would be an almighty pain in the hole to set up each shot so you'd have to spend weeks at it given the numbers of them around.

duskyjoe

I remember well CDG used to be plagued with rabbits and hares. A lot the population there had myxomatosis with little effect of controlling numbers. For Dublin some of the hares are the size of small dogs and yes I have come across them in the small hours 'ridin' away on the taxiways irrespective of a large aircraft looming towards them. I appreciate they are a protected species but I'd nearly term them vermin at this stage there's so many of them and it's akin to CDG.

youtheman

My brother is a Ryanair pilot. He said he was taxiing out in Dublin one morning and another pilot (in broken English) reported a Kangaroo on the runway. He said there was silence on the airwaves as everyone had a good laugh.

The_Wanderer

I came across several of them in the Red Car Park one night. Didn't realise they were so widespread across the airfield.