Bats and wind turbine

This video clip, and others, are presented to support a study that appears in the Journal of Wildlife Management. This study deals with the recent finding that forest-dwelling bats are often found dead beneath operating wind turbines at wind energy facilities. Thermal infrared video cameras were used to record the flight behavior of bats at night near the turbines at the Mountaineer wind energy facility in West Virginia. Researchers Horn, Kunz et.al. were attempting to understand the cause of the fatalities. We encourage you to read the study for context as you view the clips. Other clips and the study can be viewed at http://www.bu.edu/cecb/wind/video/.
www.windaction.org

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• windactionorg

[JeanneTheKCfan]

This clip was just on danish news! Poor bats =(

[mrepicman77]

wind turbine wins :D

[caribousteaks]

oh yea, took one for the team. HOMERUNNNNN! poor mr. bat. I love bats, I hate wind turbines. except where there are no bats....or birds...or views to be spoilt.

[barbibird101664]

The cumulative effects are of particular concern. We are adding impacts of windmills but not reducing them anywhere else. Just recently there have been some projects completed that do reduce mortality from vehicular trauma. There are ways to implement wind energy harnassing safely. Wind energy is also hurting people at this point, flicker, noise, etc.

[fishmeats]

no way! I was wondering why I saw dead bats on the ground when I was walking around a wind farm!

[captjames5]

I don't think we are going to have a bat shortage anytime soon. lol Think of all the wildlife deaths that oil has caused.

[windfarmer56]

Newer studies in the USA have found that most bat mortalities are caused by low speed blade operation when the turbine is actually off-line and "free-wheeling". The bat is not actually hit but flies thru a low pressure zone following the blade tips. New software in the turbines can now lock down the turbine in low wind conditions and eliminate most bat mortalities, and is being deployed in many wind farms throughout the industry.

[Gmax0505]

@sjh7132 I was replying to liadon666 who claimed that bats use low frequencies to navigate in large environments. I did not make the claim, I simply refuted this point -- I implied that it was untrue, but I'd rather refute and invalidate a false claim than waste my time accusing people as liars.

[sjh7132]

@Gmax0505

Since when is ultrasonic considered a 'low' frequency. Bats and turbines are completely at opposite ends of the audio spectrum.

[koertje]

no problem.

stupid bats die.

the clever ones survive