Event:

A range of terrestrial and arboreal animals modify their movements to reduce the risk of accidents, tending to favour areas and routes associated with a higher probability of escape from predators. Accidents themselves are rarely fatal in terrestrial locomotion. But this is not the case for flight, because flight is fast (typically 7-16 m/s). Collisions with solid substrates are therefore likely to result in injury and death, but such infrequent events are difficult to study. I will present cases where accidents represent an important source of mortality in long-lived seabirds, and outline how wind plays a key role in determining the collision risk. I will then consider how these risks affect seabird movements at very different scales, from auks preparing to land at their cliff-nesting sites, to streaked shearwaters responding to cyclones in the Sea of Japan.