Experts studying bats in Taiwan are petitioning the government to conduct ecological surveys on how their natural habitats have been affected by the development of offshore wind farms.
The petition was launched after guidelines governing the ecological surveys conducted for offshore wind turbine farms — compiled by the Environmental Protection Administration and the Ocean Conservation Administration — failed to include surveys of bats.
Formosan Golden Bats’ Home director Cheng Heng-chia (張恒嘉) yesterday said that many overseas studies showed that onshore wind turbines have negative effects on birds, and the effects on bats are no smaller than those on birds.
Photo courtesy of the Formosan Golden Bats’ Home
In the US, millions of bats are estimated to have been killed by wind turbines each year, Cheng said.
Similar studies in Taiwan around onshore wind turbines have also found that more than 10,000 bats die each year and the carcasses of bats at wind farms nationwide exceed those of birds, he said.
Some of the bats killed by wind turbines are rarely seen in Taiwan, including serotine bats, common noctules, frosted bats and Hodgson’s bats, studies have found.
“The scale of the government’s development of offshore wind energy is far greater than that of onshore wind energy, and areas affected by the blades of offshore wind farms are larger than those of onshore wind farms. All these factors gradually elevate the risks of bats being killed by wind turbines,” Cheng said
Germany in 2013 started including bats in its ecological surveys of animals affected by wind farms, Cheng added.
Joe Huang (黃俊嘉), an expert at the Southeast Asian Bat Conservation and Research Unit, said that Taiwan lacks research on how offshore wind farms affect bats.
Research on bats’ activities in coastal areas is also limited, he added.
However, at least seven species of bats have been sighted off the west coast in recent years, Huang said.
“Since most bats in Taiwan only give birth to one pup per year, the population replenishment rate is much lower than that of other mammals of similar size,” he said.
“Should the installation of wind turbines cause a large number of deaths, it could endanger the survival of some species,” Huang said. “As such, bats should be listed as a priority group for evaluation during offshore wind power development.”
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
DO THEY BITE IT? Cats have better memories than people might think, but their motivation is based entirely around the chance of getting fed Cats can remember the identity of the people who fed them the day before, Taipei-based veterinarians said on Friday, debunking a popular myth that cats have a short memory. If a stray does not recognize the person who fed them the previous day, it is likely because they are not carrying food and the cat has no reason to recognize them, said Wu Chou Animal Hospital head Chen Chen-huan (陳震寰). “When cats come to a human bearing food, it is coming for the food, not the person,” he said. “The food is the key.” Since the cat’s attention is on the food, it
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
TOO DANGEROUS: The families agreed to suspend crewed recovery efforts that could put rescuers in danger from volcanic gases and unstable terrain The bodies of two Taiwanese tourists and a Japanese pilot have been located inside a volcanic crater, Japanese authorities said yesterday, nearly a month after a sightseeing helicopter crashed during a flight over southwestern Japan. Drone footage taken at the site showed three bodies near the wreckage of the aircraft inside a crater on Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, police and fire officials said. The helicopter went missing on Jan. 20 and was later found on a steep slope inside the Nakadake No. 1 Crater, about 50m below the rim. Authorities said that conditions at the site made survival highly unlikely, and ruled
RSS