In the link
below you can download a new paper highlighting the impact of the wind farms on
an endangered vulture species due to collision mortality.
(link will provide free access until March 30, 2016, http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1SWbq1R~e3BzZ)
Authors have
shown that, under the most likely avoidance rates, annual predicted collision
mortality was 5–11% of the population, creating risk of population decline for
the Cinereous vultures (Aegypius monachus) in south-eastern
Europe.
It was shown
that, operational wind farms were located in the population core area and in the
highest priority areas for vulture conservation. Collision mortality was
expected almost exclusively in the population core area, rendering further
future wind farm development plans there severely problematic for vulture
population persistence.
Authors have
produced a species-specific sensitivity map, as a conservation prioritization
system, offering a spatially explicit solution to the conflict between wind
energy development and vulture conservation.
From Ian Harrison