Bat Fatalities at Wind Farms in Taiwan

Abstract

We collected bat carcasses at three wind farms in Taiwan, located along the west coast mostly near the sea and/or in former coastal wetland habitats. We found 43 bat carcasses, mostly of common aerial-hawking species such as Pipistrellus abramus and Scotophilus kuhlii, but the island endemics Eptesicus serotinus horikawai and Myotis formosus flavus were also recovered. All bat species affected are believed to remain on the island all year. As far as we know this is the first report of bat fatalities at wind energy facilities in eastern Asia.