In the long-running turf battle between jets and critters on the plains, Denver International Airport logged at least 863 collisions between aircraft and wildlife last year, the second-highest total in the airport’s history. Airport records put strike-related repairs at roughly $1 million. In one standout incident in April 2025, a white-tailed jackrabbit was sucked into a Boeing 737 engine during takeoff, forcing the flight to turn back to DIA and racking up about $344,500 in damage. The growing tally is straining Wildlife Services crews and reviving tough questions about perimeter fencing and nearby development that funnels animals toward the airfield.
According to Rocky Mountain PBS, those numbers draw on KUNC reporting and a March USDA Wildlife Services document. The report notes that last year’s strike count was about 1% below the 2024 record yet nearly 30% higher than DIA’s five-year average. Local coverage says airport and federal wildlife crews haze tens of thousands of birds and remove thousands of mammals as part of day-to-day work. Aviation and wildlife officials say the spike is making both safety operations and long-term planning a lot more complicated.
How DEN’s wildlife team operates
Denver operates an FAA-approved Wildlife Hazard Management Plan and keeps a year-round contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services for on-site control and habitat work, as laid out on DEN’s wildlife management page. The plan leans first on harassment tools such as sirens and pyrotechnics to push birds away from runways. Trapping, relocation, and targeted lethal removal come into play when a hazard sticks around. Airport materials say hazing, habitat changes, and coordination with FAA guidance form the core of how DIA tries to keep animals and airplanes from crossing paths.
National picture: strikes are climbing
Federal numbers tell a similar story nationwide. The FAA’s latest report logged 22,372 wildlife strike reports in 2024, according to the FAA’s national strike report. The agency links the rise to more air traffic, shifting bird populations, and quieter turbofan engines that make encounters with wildlife more consequential. Those national pressures line up with what DIA is seeing locally, where development, drainage patterns, and pockets of standing water can create inviting habitat just outside the airfield. The FAA’s analysis helps explain why airports across the country are rethinking what they spend on mitigation.
USDA findings at DIA
Documents summarized by Rocky Mountain PBS say Wildlife Services hazed more than 126,000 birds and lethally removed 6,341 animals on the DIA airfield last year. The records flag repeat weak spots: broken exclusion chains that allow cliff swallows to return, an obsolete canopy that has turned into a pigeon breeding hangout and perimeter fencing that small mammals regularly burrow under. The agency recommended installing an apron or skirt at the base of the fence to cut down on mammal incursions and noted that rolls of spare fencing in the airport boneyard could be reused with little or no new material cost. The findings suggest that basic hardware fixes, not hazing alone, will be needed to knock down strike numbers.
Cost, safety and passenger impacts
Wildlife strikes can damage engines, sideline aircraft, and generate large repair bills; the FAA report and related industry analyses describe damaging encounters as a persistent safety and economic headache. At DIA, the combination of repair costs and downtime tied to these strikes pushed local bills to roughly $1 million last year. Individual engine-ingestion cases have run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. For passengers, the fallout shows up in more mundane ways: delays, unscheduled returns to the gate, and the occasional cancellation while crews check aircraft for damage…