Bats with the pressure variations finished

2008/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Zoologia
• Energia berriztagarriak

The turbines provoke in bats the same problem as when divers leave too fast: pulmonary barotraumatism. The pressure drops too quickly, so the air containing the lungs expands and the pulmonary alveoli explode. The alveoli kill the hemorrhages that occur in the explosion, both divers and bats.

To this conclusion has arrived a researcher from the Canadian University of Calgary, who has made a dissection of 75 bats killed in wind farms. It seems that the blades of the wind turbines provoke a sharp decrease of pressure in the movement, and if some bat is near the blades, the change of pressure causes the aforementioned pulmonary explosion.

Long ago, scientists were dedicated to finding out how bats die in wind farms. In fact, bats perceive more easily the hillsides in motion than those who are at rest thanks to their sonar. Therefore, they hardly die against the wings (most of the dead bats have no external wounds).