Wind turbines send wildlife diving for cover

NOISY wind farms in California are making squirrels edgy and prone to scurrying for cover. This change in behaviour could have knock-on effects on animals that depend upon the squirrel, such as the golden eagle, which feeds on the rodent, and the red-legged frog and California tiger salamander, which live in its burrows.

Lawrence Rabin of the University of California at Davis and his colleagues compared the behaviour of two groups of Californian ground squirrels in similar environments, except that one group lives close to a wind farm.

The biologists played recordings of alarm calls to each group of squirrels. Those living near the wind turbines were more likely to dash back to their burrow when they heard an alarm call, and spent more time looking around for predators. Team member Donald Owings says that the noise of the turbines seems to make the squirrels more alert, perhaps because they need to compensate for their reduced ability to communicate through sound.

Wind turbine noise may affect wildlife communities all over the world, the researchers write in a forthcoming issue of Biological Conservation. While not suggesting that wind farms should not be built, they say that more care needs to be taken over choosing where to site them, to minimise their impact.

From issue 2549 of New Scientist magazine, 03 May 2006, page 18