AUS Press: Introduction of wind farms helps finds endangered

[Fatal_S]

I stole this from Herp News, who posts interesting reptile news tidbits on the Reptile Canada forum.

AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION 28 December 12 Introduction of wind farms helps finds endangered lizards (Brooke Neindorf)
The South Australian Museum says the introduction of wind farms has led to greater discoveries of the pygmy bluetongue lizard in the State's mid-north.
For 20-years the Museum has led a research project into the endangered species in the Burra region.
A community group has been formed to help continue the research which has now identified about 27 populations of the rare lizard.
Senior herpetology researcher at the Museum, Doctor Mark Hutchinson, says greater environmental scrutiny for wind farm developments has had an unexpected side-effect.
"In the periphery of it where people are looking to put in tracks or other things, down the bottoms of hills and on the edges of where the windfarms are going, the lizards have turned up.
"So about four or five of the latest populations have turned up as a side-benefit of having to pay for environmental attention to particular areas in the landscape."
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/sa/content/2012/12/s3661460.htm

[Lea]

It's hard to know whether the establishment of wind farms is actually negatively impacting the pygmies though. As they went up, the skinks appeared to be driven away from these sites, therefore became more noticeable as a population. Their discovery in these areas was seen as a positive sign for their numbers, but it might be the negative impact of a change in their habitat, which forces them out of their homes and into the open.

I still prefer the use of wind power to nuclear ... I'm certain that would have a much greater impact!

Thank you for the link, mel, it's definitely an interesting area for discussion.