For centuries now Bats have been creatures that have been plagued by our ignorance and horrible myths that were created around them. The creatures have been often misunderstood and with little knowledge about their ways even till this day, we still have a lot to learn about these creatures of the dark. They were always considered as carriers of death and plague while they actually stop both of those catastrophes by weeding out insects and saving crops across the world. Now they are apparently falling prey to the wind turbines spread across not America and it is not even the razor sharp blades that are killing them!

Researchers a the University of Calgary found that the vast majority of bats found dead at a wind farm in Southwest Alberta suffered severe injuries to their respiratory systems consistent with a sudden drop in air pressure - called Barotrauma. Barotrauma is a condition resulting from drastic changes in air pressure occurring, for example, when the bats fly through an area where the pressure drops dramatically, such as it does near a spinning turbine blade.

While people have been switching to smaller wind turbines in the urban and semi-urban locations, there are plenty of windmill farms that fall in the birds’ migratory path from Canada to Mexico. These wind turbines are killing the bats at a rate that is much higher than normal causing depletion in their population which subsequently would lead to increase of pests in farms across North America. While we indeed still need wind energy, one must study the ecological implications of setting them up in a certain location before we end up disturbing the entire ecosystem.

Via Cleantechnica