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When news broke this month of the first documented bald eagle’s nest in Toronto’s history, the city’s international airport decided it was a good time to sing the praises of its own resident eagle.
“While we don’t have a nest at the airport,” Toronto Pearson wrote on X, “we do have Ivan, our in-house bald eagle who specializes in keeping the airspace surrounding the airport clear.”
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According to the airport, Ivan joined the team as an eaglet — he’s been with the team since 2001, and is reportedly about 24 years old. Eagles can live 20 to 30 years in the wild on average, but captive birds have been known to push 50, so Ivan may be only middle-aged.
“Coming in at seven pounds, Ivan is the biggest bird of prey used at Toronto Pearson,” the airport notes. “He is one of the approximately 25 birds of prey that helps keep the airspace at Toronto Pearson clear by reducing the number of birds on runways and thus the chances of an airplane experiencing a bird strike.”
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Harris hawks and falcons round out the team, but Ivan is clearly the star. He can reach speeds of over 50 km/h in normal flight, and more than double that when diving. Accompanied by a wildlife management team, he patrols the airfield, along with creeks, grassland areas, floodplains and wild areas that surround the airport property. The team starts an hour before sunrise and works an hour after sunset.
Pearson works with a Quebec company, Falcon Environmental, that specializes in control and management of “nuisance wildlife.” The company also has contracts with Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport, Trudeau and Mirabel in Montreal, and JFK in New York. In addition, it provides birds to several Canadian and American military bases, landfills, bridges and at least one jail in Quebec.
Falcon notes that the majority of bird strikes occur while the aircraft is still on the ground (40 per cent) or less than 30 metres in the air (15 per cent), meaning that control around airport runways is vital to aircraft safety.
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