Hawaii gets digital TV early to protect endangered birds
U.S. TV stations are required to switch to digital transmissions in February, but the citizens of Hawaii will get DTV a month early, courtesy of an endangered bird.
The Hawaiian petrel, also known as the 'Ua'u, makes its nests on a Maui volcano near the state's current analog transmission towers. The petrels' nesting season is in February, when the old towers were scheduled to be torn down.
Fearing for the safety of the fragile birds, which don't much care for modern urban society, the FCC will now build new transmission towers at a different location, and have them operational by mid-January. The old towers will then be torn down, well ahead of the petrel's mating season.
Not only will this reduce the amount of human activity and noise in the area during this critical breeding period, it will help the petrels in another way: they tend to fly into the towers and kill themselves. Once the old towers are gone, conservationists hope the petrels will have a more successful breeding season than usual.
Let's hope. There are only a few thousand of the birds left, and they have already disappeared from most of the Hawaiian islands. This could be the boost they need to survive.
The Hawaiian petrel, also known as the 'Ua'u, makes its nests on a Maui volcano near the state's current analog transmission towers. The petrels' nesting season is in February, when the old towers were scheduled to be torn down.
Fearing for the safety of the fragile birds, which don't much care for modern urban society, the FCC will now build new transmission towers at a different location, and have them operational by mid-January. The old towers will then be torn down, well ahead of the petrel's mating season.
Not only will this reduce the amount of human activity and noise in the area during this critical breeding period, it will help the petrels in another way: they tend to fly into the towers and kill themselves. Once the old towers are gone, conservationists hope the petrels will have a more successful breeding season than usual.
Let's hope. There are only a few thousand of the birds left, and they have already disappeared from most of the Hawaiian islands. This could be the boost they need to survive.
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