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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

US Bird Deaths: Cats vs Wind turbines

According to the US Fish and Wildlife Services as reported in Scientific American: wind turbines account for approximately 1/2 million bird deaths annually in the United States.  In a recent Nature article as reported by the BBC, cats (primarily stray and feral) were estimated to kill between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds annually in the United States.  According to the US Humane Society there are an estimated 50 million feral cats in the US compared to 86.4 million domestic cats.

Not this kind of cat.  Smaller cats - National Zoo - N. Carlson

According to birdsandbuilding.org, buildings are estimated to kill 1 billion birds per year.  A bird safe building guideline is available from the Audubon Society of Minnesota.


http://www.sibleyguides.com/conservation/causes-of-bird-mortality/

In summary, wind turbines are conservatively 1,000 times less effective at killing birds than other buildings or the birds feline foes.  Sylvester is doing very well in his quest for a tweety bird although his homeless cousin does more damage. 



Tweety and Sylvester - Warner Bros.

Bob Barker and Drew Carey may be on to something.

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