Windmills ‘remove top predator birds from ecosystem’

WIND turbines act like ‘super predators’ changing ecosystems by removing birds of prey from the top of the food chain, a new study has found.

Although previous research has shown that turbines can be deadly for birds and bats, it is the first time scientists have studied the knock-on effects for other animals.

Indian scientists looked at a wind farm in the Unesco World Heritage Site of the Western Ghats, a 100,000-sq. km mountain range that runs along the western coast of the sub-continent.

The study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution compared populations of raptors and lizards on a plateaus with and without turbines.

They found areas with wind farms had four times fewer buzzards, hawks and kites, but an over-abundance of fan-throated lizards which are normally eaten by the birds.

The reptile also had lower levels of the stress hormone corticosone and this changed how it lived, allowing humans to get much closer than usual before they ran away.

Not only to turbines kill raptors, but over time the birds learn to stay away from areas which have wind farms.

Earlier this year a study looking at wind farms in the English channel showed seabirds went out of their way to avoid them, even if that meant they had to change their usual migratory patterns.

According to lead author, Professor Maria Thaker, wind farms ‘are akin to adding a top predator to the ecosystem’, creating greater disruption than previously feared.