Eco location?

New Scientist: Wind turbines make bat lungs explode

… A new study shows that the moving blades [of wind turbines] cause a drop in pressure that makes the delicate lungs of bats suddenly expand, bursting the tissue's blood vessels. This is known as a barotrauma, and is well-known to scuba divers…

[Scientists] collected 188 dead bats from wind farms across southern Alberta, and determined their cause of death. They found that 90% of the bats had signs of internal haemorrhaging, but only half showed any signs of direct contact with the windmill blades. Only 8% had signs of external injuries but no internal injuries.

The movement of wind-turbine blades creates a vortex of lower air pressure around the blade tips similar to the vortex at the tip of aeroplane wings. Others have suggested that this could be lethal to bats, but until now no-one had carried out necropsies to verify the theory.

Richard Carter

A fat, bearded chap with a Charles Darwin fixation.

4 comments

  1. ....and the internal combustion engine kills badgers. Shall we ban cars while we are at it?

  2. As we all know, you just can't believe everything you see & hear, can you? Now, if you will excuse me, I must be on my way.....Paul Caruso 1967

  3. Bats & cats....are we seeing a theme developing?

    Let's hope that the next story is about hats on mats.

    The span code for this is KLIMT. Did he wear a hat & paint cats?

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