COMMENTARY BY DR. DAVE SAMUEL
Bird-Proofing Wind Turbines
Regular readers know that I’ve talked often about wind turbines killing thousands, if not millions of birds and bats every year. I know people believe that wind is the solution to some of our pollution problems, but without government subsidies, wind power wouldn’t happen. Even when it happens the amount of power created will never be close to what is needed. You can tell I’m not a fan.
That said, I found a small study done in Norway that might be a cheap way to save the lives of many birds that fly near wind turbines. They painted one blade on each turbine black and did not paint a nearby control turbine. They replicated this with four pairs of turbines. After three years the number of birds killed by the turbine with one black blade was 71% lower than the turbines with all-white blades. Painting one blade black eliminated killing white-tailed eagles. Pretty neat. Nothing in the report talked about impacts on bats. Wonder how long it will be before we see black blades on turbines in America? Don’t hold your breath.
Painted Eyes Reduces Lion Predation on Cattle
Lions kill cattle in Africa, and, for many natives, cattle are extremely important. The usual way to protect cattle from predators is to separate them, usually by fencing. For nomadic natives, that is not an option, and even where there are fences, lions still cause problems.
Lions are ambush predators that stalk their prey, usually from the rear. Apparently, when the cattle see the predator, the ambush is abandoned. In Botswana, they tried something very unique. They painted big eyes on the rear upper thigh of the cattle. Over four years, they painted 2,061 cattle from 14 herds that had recently suffered lion attacks. One-third of the herds got the artificial eye spot design before they were released from their overnight enclosures. None of the 683 “eye-cows” were killed by lions during the four years, while 15 of the 835 unpainted cows were killed. They also painted 543 cattle with a simple cross (X) on the rump. Four of those were killed by lions. It takes almost no time to paint a cross on a cow, and even that reduced predation a great deal. But if you’re a cow that doesn’t want to be eaten by a lion, clearly, “the eyes have it.” Pretty neat and also cheap to do.
Reminds me of the fact that field workers in India, where there are tigers, wear human-likeness face masks on the back of their heads to prevent being ambushed from behind by tigers. It evidently works as most field workers wear such masks.
Bird Watchers, Wear Your Masks
We’ve been told to wear masks because of the pandemic. A study just published put an interesting wildlife slant on wearing face masks. Researchers in China looked at how close humans could get to Eurasian sparrows before they flew away. Masks made a difference. Humans wearing pandemic face masks got closer than those without. They suspect the following.
During the pandemic, especially the first 3-4 months, few humans were outside. So the birds had few encounters with people, but later all the people they saw wore masks. The thought was that the birds learned that these humans were less of a threat. Hmmm. I’m not so sure. My guess is that all of you bird watchers won’t notice a difference in your hobby with or without a face mask. Regardless, bird watching is a great way to practice social distancing. Go for it.
