Bats are a protected species in the UK but the trust believe windfarms pose a big danger. While bats can avoid the blades, the pressure creates a vacuum capable of killing them by bursting their lungs.
Anne Youngman, Scottish officer at the trust, said: “People think the danger is bats getting hit by the blade but the danger is barotrauma, where they are popped from the inside.
“There are many risks to bats but when you add wind turbines it could be the final nail in the coffin.” Anne lives near a windfarm and said a bat had been found dead. She said: “It had no signs of external trauma. That, to me, suggests it suffered internally.”
3 comments:
I don't quite understand. the windmills don't produce wind or change conditions in the air. They only turn when the wind is already blowing.
I don't understand it either, Miss C.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14593-wind-turbines-make-bat-lungs-explode.html#.UjeLPpznCe0
In fact, a new study shows that the moving blades 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.
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