MELBOURNE: Aussie rockers AC/DC may have to cancel a sold out concert in Austria over fears that their high-voltage rock and roll may have a dramatic impact on a colony of rare birds.

Some 80,000 tickets for the event at Wels airport in northern Austria were snapped up by eager fans in hours but the group has clashed with animal rights groups over concerns of a local bird species called the curlew.according to Hans Uhl of BirdLife, the ground-nesting birds would be threatened by the loud music.

“The second biggest colony of curlews in Upper Austria and various other ground-nesting birds must not become endangered,” News.com.au quoted Uhl as telling The Daily Telegraph.

Animal rights campaigners are reportedly threatening legal action if the band goes ahead with the concert in Wels, west of Vienna, in May.