RT Journal Article
T1 Wind farms and griffon vultures: evidence that under certain conditions history is not-always turbulent
A1 Farfán-Aguilar, Miguel Ángel
A1 Díaz-Ruiz, Francisco
A1 Duarte, Jesús
A1 Martín-Taboada, Adrián
A1 Roman-Muñoz, Antonio
K1 Biología
K1 Aves - Poblaciones
K1 Buitres leonados
K1 Impacto ambiental - Análisis
K1 Energía eólica
AB Since the early stages of wind energy development, there has been concern about the potentialimpact of wind farms on wildlife, particularly birds and bats. However, the lack of long-termstudies has hindered the assessment of the real effect of wind farms on mortality and distur-bances. We show a case study in which we researched during the nestling rearing period the long-term effects of a wind farm located in southern Spain on the abundance, displacement, andmortality of the Griffon Vulture, a raptor considered very sensitive to collisions. After 13 years ofoperation, observation and abundance rates increased significantly during the study period.Griffon Vultures avoided flights between wind turbines by flying at the ends of the rows orthrough the existing corridor between alignments of wind turbines. Our results are in line withthe theory that birds may become habituated to the presence of wind farms suggesting that, undercertain conditions, it could be possible to reconcile the presence of wind farms with raptorconservation. Environmental agencies should not only require robust pre-construction surveys,but also that wind energy developers monitor bird abundance and behaviours throughout thelifetime of a wind farm. Since not all wind farms are associated with high mortality rates, such aninitiative could be key to gaining more knowledge on the association between wind-farm loca-tion, design and risk to birds.
PB Elsevier
YR 2023
FD 2023-11-11
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/28710
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/28710
LA eng
NO Miguel Ángel Farfán, Francisco Díaz-Ruiz, Jesús Duarte, Adrián Martín-Taboada, Antonio-Román Muñoz, Wind farms and Griffon Vultures: Evidence that under certain conditions history is not-always turbulent, Global Ecology and Conservation, Volume 48, 2023, e02728, ISSN 2351-9894, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2023.e02728.
NO Partial funding for open Access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 23 ene 2026