Whilst I might be a fan of
taxidermy, bats and dead things, it is safe to say that this is not everyone’s
hobby or pretty site. Furthermore animal protectors, vegetarians and all the
other groups of people may be truly disturbed by deaths of animals due to
humans even if its bats. Wind power is not always good and when I wrote my
previous post about it, I did not seem to come across any major disadvantages
however I have just stumbled upon a very interesting article telling me that
wind turbines cause increased bat fatalities especially during mating season.
Thinking about it logically, I am sure they also cause bird fatalities however
in this post I just want to quickly express my thoughts about bats and
summarize that article.
The article states that bats are
dying in unusual number at wind turbines especially during low-wind conditions
in the late summer and autumn. Tree bats species are the most susceptible to
increased mortality rates hence it is assumed that this occurrence is due to
the fact that bats are mistaking wind turbines for trees due to their limited
day time vision and turbines being tall structures that remind them of trees.
The article used thermal surveillance cameras that were installed on wind
turbines to try perform a control experiment and observe the bats’ behavior to
try work out whether these fatalities are actually influenced by the turbines.
The article found that the speed at which the blades on turbines rotated
effected bat behavior (Cryan, 2014). As the new modern turbines are very
quiet as well, it increases bat fatalities as the sounds of blades rotating
does not scare the bats away from turbines but if anything, attracts them to
the turbines as the sounds remind bats of leaves and branches of the tree
moving due to the wind. Bats reproduce in trees hence the attraction of bats to
turbines to begin with. Further more ecological research suggest that bats can
sense and respond to air currents and thus it is easier for them to yet again
mistake the blades for tree branches. Whilst the article is uncertain about
specific causes of why bats are attracted to turbines, it does seem to imply
that they are and bat mortality is increased.
So from this information we can
conclude that wind power generation can actually have some negative effects for
the ecology and our environment and it is not a completely environmentally
friendly method of producing energy. Bat deaths make me sad as I find bats a
very nice little creature and hence below is a picture of a screaming
businessman- one of Francis Bacon’s portraits that describes well my feelings
about increased bat mortality rates due to our desire to produce energy.
Figure 1.
Source: Tate. “Study for a Portrait” or “Businessman I” or “Man’s Head” by Francis Bacon.
