Texas is proud to be one of the front runners in the "airtricity" race of alternative energies. and, wind power is supposed to be one of the "greenest" energy sources for our environment, right? well, one of our state mammals, the mexican freetail bat, just may beg to differ.
according to alarmed environmentalists, wind farms routinely see dozens of dead bats scattered around the base of windmills. at first, scientists couldn't figure out why this was happening because it was assumed that the bats' sonar should keep them from running willy-nilly into the blades -- and when it was discovered that most of the bats had no external signs of injury, ecologists were dumbfounded. turns out, when the bats fly through the low-pressure areas around the wind farms, their lungs explode. ouch!
what a quandry.
