Hoary bat
CREDIT: M. D. TUTTLE/BAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL |
Wind energy is supposed to be environmentally friendly--but ask a bat about that. Puddles of dead bats, apparent collision victims, have been found at the bases of wind turbines in West Virginia.
Last summer, wildlife biologists found almost 500 casualties representing nine species near the 44 turbines at the Mountaineer Wind Energy Center in West Virginia. Now scientists and bat conservationists have established a three- member group, funded by the U.S. government and the wind industry, to do a 3-year study on how many bats are losing their lives at wind power sites and what to do about it.
Wildlife biologist Merlin Tuttle of Bat Conservation International, a member of the study group, says that scientists suspect the dead bats were migrating--and might even have been attracted to the sound of the turbines. The fix could be as simple as air foils that disrupt the wind vortices created by the towers, he says.
In any case, "there's an urgency to the problem," says wildlife biologist Alan Hicks of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany. "These [wind energy] projects are popping up all over the place." In fact, another 366 turbines are planned for the Mountaineer site in the next few years.
