Effects of wind farms on bats

The effects of wind turbines, which are rapidly becoming widespread in Turkey, on bats are discussed in this study. For this purpose, dead individuals were surveyed in a wind power plant in Balıkesir, Isparta, Kırklareli, Muğla and Tekirdağ provinces between 2018-2019. Apart from these, sound (acoustic) recordings were taken to determine potential species using the power plant area. The distribution of bat species affected by turbines by months, power plant, turbines, sex and age, turbine features and weather conditions that are thought to cause mortality were evaluated. The most dead species in turbines are Pipistrellus pipistrellus (54.1%), Pipistrellus nathusii (18.2%) and Hypsugo savii (8.2%), respectively. The death toll among the power plants was determined as 2.43-5.17 individuals per turbine and 0.88-3.23 individuals per megawatt. The highest mortality was observed at a distance of 0-30 m from the turbines, between July and September, in females (41%) and adults (66%) by sex and age, respectively. In addition, it was determined that the number of deaths was higher in species using wooded areas for feeding, roosting, etc. on days when the temperature was above 16 oC and the wind speed was between 3.5-4.5 m/s.