High vulnerability of juvenile Nathusius' pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus nathusii) at wind turbines ...

• Main Authors: Kruszynski, Cecilia, Bailey, Liam D., Bach, Lothar, Bach, Petra, Fritze, Marcus, Lindecke, Oliver, Teige, Tobias, Voigt, Christian C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2022
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Mammalia; Chiroptera; Chordata; Animalia; bats; bat; Pipistrellus nathusii
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13451966; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13451966

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Abstract Large numbers of bats are killed by wind turbines globally, yet the specific demographic consequences of wind turbine mortality are still unclear. In this study, we compared characteristics of Nathusius' pipistrelles ( Pipistrellus nathusii ) killed at wind turbines ( N = 119) to those observed within the live population ( N = 524) during the summer migration period in Germany. We used generalized linear mixed‐effects modeling to identify demographic groups most vulnerable to wind turbine mortality, including sex (female or male), age (adult or juvenile), and geographic origin (regional or long‐distance migrant; depicted by fur stable hydrogen isotope ratios). Juveniles contributed with a higher proportion of carcasses at wind turbines than expected given their frequency in the live population suggesting that juvenile bats may be particularly vulnerable to wind turbine mortality. This effect varied with wind turbine density. Specifically, at low ...