Bird and bat collisions with wind turbines can impact on both population and species persistence (Voigt et al 2024), and pose the most significant wildlife challenge for wind farms. Mounting evidence suggests that flying-foxes are also impacted directly by wind farms, and this imposes material constraints on wind energy production, through delayed pathways to wind farm approval and deployment, through expensive requirements for baseline and operational monitoring, and through commercial uncertainty where realised collisions invoke regulatory responses.
Australian flying-foxes are extremely mobile, and through their mobility they provide key linkages between habitat fragments across anthropogenic and natural barriers. However, their mobility also complicates human vs. flying-fox conflict mitigation, particularly when local mast flowering events cause large influxes of flying-foxes to areas that support wind farms. At present, the drivers of flying-foxes movements are unknown, and spatiotemporal dynamics are not well understood, which poses important impediments to planning, feasibility and operation of onshore wind farms.
Building on our work using weather radar to monitor the activity, abundance, and directions of flying-foxes emerging from their roosts, we are developing accurate predictions and near real time alerts to flying-fox passage through onshore wind farms. While the project is still in development, all the necessary weather radar data, tracking data and satellite remote sensing data have already been collected, and strong proofs-of-concepts have been establised.
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AIM: The aim of this project is to generate accurate predictions and near real-time alerts to flying-fox passage through onshore wind farms. Ultimately this will:
TEAM: Prof Justin Welbergen (WSU); A/Prof Christopher Turbill (WSU) Dr Jessica Meade (WSU); A/Prof Rohan Clarke (Monash University)
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PARTNERS: Partnerships are currently in development across academia, government, and industry.
References
- VOIGT, C. C., BERNARD*, E., HUANG*, J. C. C., FRICK*, W. F., KERBIRIOU*, C., MACEWAN*, K., MATHEWS*, F., RODRÍGUEZ-DURÁN*, A., SCHOLZ*, C., WEBALA*, P. W., WELBERGEN*, J. A., WHITBY* M. (2024). Towards solving the global green-green dilemma between wind energy production and bat conservation. BioScience, doi: 10.1093/biosci/biae02 [*contributed equally, in alphabetical order]
- MEADE, J., VAN DER REE, R., STEPANIAN, P. M., WESTCOTT, D. A. & WELBERGEN, J. A., 2019. Using weather radar to monitor the number, timing and directions of flying-foxes emerging from their roosts. Scientific Reports, 9(1):10222.
- MCCARTHY, E. D., MARTIN, J. M., BOER, M. M. & WELBERGEN (2022). Ground-based counting methods underestimate true numbers of a threatened colonial mammal: an evaluation using drone-based thermal surveys as a reference. Wildlife Research, doi: 10.1071/WR21120
- YABSLEY, S. H., MEADE, J., HIBBURT, T., MARTIN, J. M., BOARDMAN, W. S. J., NICOLLE, D., WALKER, M., TURBILL, C & WELBERGEN, J. A. (2022). Variety is the spice of life: flying-foxes exploit a variety of native and exotic food plants in an urban landscape mosaic. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 10:907966
- MEADE, J., MARTIN, J. M., & WELBERGEN, J. A. (2021). Fast food in the city? Nomadic flying-foxes commute less and hang around for longer in urban areas. Behavioral Ecology, 32: 1151-1162
- YABSLEY, S. H., MEADE, J., MARTIN, J. M., & WELBERGEN, J. A. (2021). Human-modified landscapes provide key foraging areas for a threatened flying mammal: The grey-headed flying-fox. Plos One, 16: e0259395.
- MCCARTHY, E. D., MARTIN, J. M., BOER, M. M. & WELBERGEN (2021). Drone-based thermal remote sensing provides an effective new tool for monitoring the abundance of roosting fruit bats. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 7: 461-474
- WELBERGEN, J. A., MEADE, J., FIELD, H., EDSON, D., McMICHAEL, L., SHOO, L. P., PRASZCZALEK, J., SMITH, C., MARTIN, J. (2020) Extreme mobility of the world's largest flying mammals creates key challenges for management and conservation. BMC Biology, 18: 101