TY - JOUR
TI - Factors affecting searcher efficiency and scavenger removal of bat carcasses in Neotropical wind facilities
AU - Barros, M
AU - Iannuzzi, L
AU - Silva, I
AU - Otálora-Ardila, A
AU - Bernard, E
T2 - The Journal of Wildlife Management
AB - Bat fatalities at wind facilities have been reported worldwide, and environmental impact assessments depend on searches for carcasses around wind turbines to quantify impacts. Some of the carcasses may go undetected by search teams or be removed by scavengers during search intervals, so these biases must be evaluated and taken into account in fatality estimation. We investigated the influence of different factors on searcher efficiency and scavenger removal in a dry forest area in northeastern Brazil, one of the regions with the highest density of wind turbines in the Neotropics. We conducted searcher efficiency and scavenger removal trials around 34 wind turbines from January 2017 to January 2018. Searcher efficiency was influenced by cover type, season, and carcass size, ranging between 12% for small bats in shrub vegetation during the rainy season and 96% for large bats in absent or sparse vegetation during the dry season. Carcass type and season affected scavenger removal; carcass persistence time was shorter for chicks (1.2 days) than for bats and mice (2.1 days), and the probability of a carcass persisting for a whole day was higher in the rainy season, while the probability of carcass persistence for 7, 14, and 28 days was higher in the dry season. The scavenger community was composed of canids, birds of prey, and insects, with systematic removal of carcasses by the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) throughout the year and by dung beetles in the rainy season. Based on our findings, impact assessments of wind facilities on bats should conduct searcher efficiency trials in all seasons and cover types around wind turbines, using bat carcasses or models of different sizes. Scavenger removal trials should cover all seasons as well, and use mouse carcasses (but not chick carcasses) as surrogates for bats.
DA - 2022/05//
PY - 2022
VL - 86
IS - 4
SP - e22198
UR - https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jwmg.22198
DO - 10.1002/jwmg.22198
LA - English
KW - Wind Energy
KW - Land-Based Wind
KW - Collision
KW - Bats
ER -