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Sex- but not age-biased wind turbine collision mortality in the White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla

Journal of Ornithology volume 161, pages 753–757 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

Several studies on wind turbine collision mortality in raptors suggest a bias towards adult birds, while sex-biased mortality has not yet been documented. We compared collision mortality in relation to all known causes of mortality and in relation to demographic data for the German population of the White-tailed Eagle and found collision mortality to be sex biased but not age biased. We suggest that these contrasting results may in part be explained by the lack of baseline data about the demographic structure of surveyed populations in previous studies. Our results stress the importance of baseline data for inferring demographic consequences of wind turbine collision mortality.

Zusammenfassung

Die Schlagopfergefährdung von Seeadlern Haliaeetus albicilla ist geschlechts-, jedoch nicht altersabhängig

Verschiedene Studien zur Schlagopfergefährdung von Greifvögeln an Windenergieanlagen deuten darauf hin, dass ältere Vögel stärker gefährdet sind als Jungvögel. Ein Einfluss des Geschlechts auf die Schlagopfergefährdung von Greifvögeln wurde bisher nicht sicher nachgewiesen. Wir verglichen die Altersstruktur und das Geschlechterverhältnis aller bekannten Seeadler-Schlagopfer an Windenergieanlagen in Deutschland mit den Verhältnissen aller anderen Totfunde sowie mit demographischen Daten aus einem Populationsmodell. Hierbei zeigte sich, dass im Gegensatz zu früheren Studien das Geschlecht einen Einfluss auf die Schlagopfergefährdung hat (männliche Seeadler waren stärker betroffen), jedoch keine Altersabhängigkeit besteht. Eine mögliche Erklärung für die gegensätzlichen Ergebnisse könnte sein, dass frühere Studien die Schlagopferzahlen nicht mit Referenzdaten zur Demographie der untersuchten Vogelpopulationen abgeglichen haben. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen die Bedeutung solcher Referenzdaten für Rückschlusse auf die demografischen Folgen von Mortalität durch Kollisionen mit Windenergieanlagen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Animal Ecology, Philipps-Universität, Karl-von-Frisch-Straße 8, 35043, Marburg, Germany

    Christian Heuck & Roland Brandl

  2. Bioplan Marburg GbR, Deutschhausstraße 36, 35037, Marburg, Germany

    Christian Heuck

  3. Agency for Environment, Nature Conservation, and Geology Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Goldberger Str. 12, 18273, Güstrow, Germany

    Christof Herrmann & Juliane Wendt

  4. Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Alfred-Kowalke-Str. 17, 10315, Berlin, Germany

    Oliver Krone

  5. Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Jörg Albrecht

Authors
  1. Christian Heuck
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  2. Christof Herrmann
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  3. Juliane Wendt
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  4. Oliver Krone
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  5. Roland Brandl
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  6. Jörg Albrecht
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Correspondence to Christian Heuck.

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Communicated by O. Krüger.

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Heuck, C., Herrmann, C., Wendt, J. et al. Sex- but not age-biased wind turbine collision mortality in the White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla. J Ornithol 161, 753–757 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-020-01757-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-020-01757-w

Keywords

  • Birds of prey
  • Wind energy
  • Collision risk
  • Sex differences