The Story
“Bats may mistake wind turbines for open sky, causing deadly collisions”
https://www.science.org/content/article/bats-may-mistake-wind-turbines-open-sky-causing-deadly-collisions
by Sachin Rawat
Science, August 26, 2025
The Pitch
I have a pitch for a news story based on a study published this week in the journal Biology Letters. To the best of my knowledge, this study hasn’t been covered anywhere yet.
Ambient light lures bats into turbine collisions
Wind turbines kill far more bats than birds. Differences in flight pattern and anatomy have been offered as explanations for this disparity, but lack experimental evidence. One peculiar chiropteran tendency has so far evaded explanation. Bats seem to be attracted to wind turbines, or more specifically, their blades. Now, reporting in Biology Letters, researchers show that bats are flying into an ecological trap.
In a controlled maze experiment, the researchers observed that bats preferred to fly toward the exits with white, reflective surfaces over less reflective or unlit options. Bats have evolved to use the open sky as a visual cue when navigating in dim light conditions. The ambient light from reflective turbine surfaces mimics the brightness of the open sky, luring bats into fatal collisions. The wind turbine blades serve as ecological traps for bats, much like artificial light does for many insects.
Please let me know if this is of interest to you.