North America's hoary bats could decline massively unless efforts are made to reduce deaths at wind farms, a new study reports. It is estimated that without effective conservation efforts, hoary bat populations could drop by 50% by 2028.

Hoary bats are comparatively large bats, whose weight is between 20—35 grams. They have dark fur dusted with white, which is how they got their name. Hoary bats undergo seasonal migration, moving from summer ranges across most of North America to southern and coastal winter habitats. Hoary bats will also hibernate for short periods of time. Hoary bats in North America provide vital ecosystem services such as insect pest consumption. The economic value of insectivorous bats to U.S. agricultural industry has been estimated in the billions annually.

“Researchers and conservation biologists have been concerned about the number of bats killed at wind farms for more than a decade, but this research emphasizes how urgently we need to act to carry out known solutions” says study co-author Winifred Frick, chief scientist for Bat Conservation International.

For their research, Frick and colleagues created models of species population growth and mortality. They considered two wind energy build-out plans―high and low—which looked at the expected growth of the wind energy sector in the United States and Canada through 2050. The report focused on determining how wind energy expansion might affect hoary bat mortality and what industry solutions could be put in place to help.

“The good news is we already know how to reduce bat deaths. The best evidence so far suggests that wind turbine limit below five meters per second could reduce hoary bat deaths nearly in half. By working together with industry partners, we can have sustainable wind energy while protecting biodiversity.” Frick told Treehugger.

Long, long ago, there were a lot of donkeys. The donkeys worked hard every day. They had no time to play or to relax, but they never felt appreciated for the work they did.

One day two donkeys got bored. They wanted to live a comfortable life. So the donkeys went to see a wise old man. They told him their problem. The wise old man agreed that they worked too hard, and he wanted to help the donkeys. “I have an idea,” he said.

“What is your idea?” asked the donkeys.

“I will paint you and no one will know you are donkeys,” said the man.

The man went off to find some paint and he returned in just a few minutes. He had two pots of paint. One pot was filled with white paint, and the other black paint.

The old man first painted them white, and then painted black stripes (条纹) over the white paint. When he finished, the donkeys did not look at all like donkeys. “You no longer look like donkeys,” the old man said. “Everyone will be fooled. I will call you something else, zebras.”

The zebras went to a field to eat grass. Now they did not have to work.

Soon, other donkeys saw the zebras. They asked the zebras where they came from. When the zebras told the donkeys their secret, the donkeys all rushed to see the old man.

“Make us into zebras, too,” they pleaded. So the wise old man painted more donkeys. As he did, more and more donkeys came.

The old man could not paint fast enough. Soon the donkeys became impatient. They began to kick about, and they knocked over the paint pots.

There was no more paint. The painted donkeys ran off to become zebras. The unpainted donkeys, because of their impatience, had to return to work.

This is why it is important to be patient.

The amount of plastic pollution in the oceans is rapidly increasing. This is problematic, as at least 700 species of sea animals may mistake it for a tasty snack. While we know that some species seem to eat plastic because it looks like jellyfish or some other food source, less research has been carried out into what plastic smells like to marine animals.

But now, a study from the University of North Carolina has found that the coating of algae that naturally builds up on ocean plastics causes the rubbish to give off the scent of food.

The researchers took 15 loggerhead turtles, each around five months old, and placed them in a laboratory tank. They then piped in clean water, clean plastic, turtle food, and plastic that had been immersed in the marine environment for five weeks.

The turtles showed no reaction to the smell of clean water or clean plastic. But when they were exposed to the smell of ocean-soaked plastic 'or turtle food, they exhibited food-seeking behaviors like reaching their noses out of the water or showing increasing activities.

“This finding is the first demonstration that the smell of ocean plastics causes animals to eat them,” said Dr. Kenneth J Lohmann, who took part in the study. "It's common to find loggerhead turtles with their digestive systems fully or partially blocked because they've eaten plastic materials. There are also increasing reports of sea turtles that have become ill and stranded on the beach due to their ingestion of plastic."

According to the researchers, areas of the ocean with dense concentrations of plastic may trick turtles and other animals into thinking that there is an abundant food source. "Once these plastics are in the ocean, we don't have a good way to remove them or prevent them from smelling like food," said Lohmann.