The bat season is coming to an end. The maternity rooms have been dissolved, young and old animals are in the process of visiting their winter quarters and the autumn migration of the migrating species is also largely over. This means that at many wind turbine sites, as every year, many animals were killed to death, as 75% of the turbines in Germany run without shutdown times to protect the animals.
To this end, we would like to ask you the following question: Have you shared your data on bats killed under wind turbines? In case you don’t already know, the State Bird Protection Station of the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment has been collecting victims of wind turbines in Germany and European countries in the central collision database for many years. The last update of the database was in August 2023 with 4,058 bat deaths at wind turbines for Germany and 12,597 for Europe. This is certainly only a fraction of the actual number of stroke victims, which is estimated at about 250,000 per year in Germany alone. Nevertheless, the documentation of such data is valuable, as it can be analyzed with the help of additional data to improve bat protection at wind turbines.
You can download the Excel tables with the deaths of wind turbines for birds and bats for Europe and Germany and also the corresponding reporting form directly.
Bats
- Bats in Europe (87.9 KB)
- Bats in Germany (80.3 KB)
Birds
- Birds in Europe (256.2 KB)
- Birds in Germany (180.0 KB)
There are various reasons for the discrepancy between the numbers in the database and the quarter of a million dead bats per year mentioned above. Many wind turbines are not (anymore) inspected for bat fatalities. The search for fatalities is also a challenge in itself, as carcasses are not found in the vegetation or are carried away or hidden from predators. Furthermore, frequently collected data is not reported because disclosure is not permitted or because there is a lack of capacity in the authorities.
This circumstance is a real shame, because the data is useful for meta-analyses and the search for bat carcasses under wind turbines is hard and meticulous work. In comparison, communicating the results is a simple step that helps to understand and improve protection. Data that is not passed on is unfortunately lost forever for bat conservation and nature conservation in general.
For this reason, we urge all people who have data on deadly bat sightings at wind turbines to take the time to comb through their hard drives and observation books. There is a simple form that you can use to share your observations. If you’re not sure how to do this, we can help. If you know people who have data, you can share this blog post with them. For more information about this database, please visit:
– Visit the website of the LfU Brandenburg
– write an e-mail to the Brandenburg Ornithological Observatory
– contact us at the German Bat Observatory
Furthermore, we are looking for photos of fatalities for the Nyctalus. Selected photos will be published in the next issue. Please send the photos (incl. image description and author) to the editors.
