Desert critters avoid noisy wind farm turbines

Our understanding of renewable energy impacts remains woefully deficient, but a new study, published last month in The Journal of Wildlife Management, suggests that windfarms affect the hunting and scavenging behaviors of the desert’s foxes, coyotes, and bobcats. Scientists visited a wind farm near Palm Springs, California, home to 460 lofty wind turbines, and set up motion-activated cameras in front of 46 desert tortoise burrows. They found that mesocarnivores (animals that mostly munch meat, but also occasionally eat some fungi and plant material), like foxes and bobcats, more often visited tortoise burrows that were farther away from the noisy, spinning machines. Lovich, a co-author of the study, explains that this sort of research aims to improve our understanding of how wind turbines affect wildlife, so future farms can be designed in less impactful ways. “My research is all about trying to find ways to minimize the negative effects of renewable energy, while maximizing the positive effects for society,” he says.