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Wind turbines pose a serious threat to bat populations, with hundreds of thousands of fatal collisions per year in the USA and Canada alone. This is concerning because bats are long-lived and slow to reproduce, making recovery from population declines difficult. Studies have shown that bats are attracted to turbines, and the lack of research on bat and wind turbine interactions in Australia limits our understanding of the impacts on bat populations. Curtailment, which restricts blade rotation at low wind speeds when bats are active, has been shown to be the most successful method of reducing collisions globally. Economically, losses from curtailment range from 1% to 4% of annual revenue in the northern hemisphere, while in Australia, the reduction is less than 0.1%. By incorporating site-specific weather and bat activity data, both economic and ecological losses can be further minimized. It is important to incorporate impacts into the planning stages of wind farm development and implement curtailment in Australia to prevent irreversible population declines. [Extracted from the article]

Wind energy is a rapidly expanding renewable technology with massive global investments; however, operating turbines are associated with bat strikes globally, and evidence suggests that without intervention, wind farm collisions could drive some common species to extinction. One widely regarded method for reducing strike mortality is operational mitigation, or curtailment, where turbine operation is restricted at low wind speeds. Despite an increasing number of studies in the Northern Hemisphere demonstrating curtailment effectiveness, no empirical studies have yet been conducted in Australia. This paper reports the findings of a curtailment study implemented at the Cape Nelson North wind farm in southwest Victoria, Australia. Conservation detection dog teams conducted mortality surveys between January and April in 2018 (before; pre‐curtailment) and 2019 (after; during curtailment). Results were consistent with similar studies in the USA and Europe, as curtailment significantly reduced pooled species mortality by 54%. Bat calls did not decline during the study period, and thus were not an explanation for the reduction in fatalities. This study demonstrates that curtailment is a valid method for reducing bat turbine collision in south‐eastern Australia. Consideration should be given to curtailment as a means to reduce bat turbine impacts in Australia, particularly at sites with known endangered and threatened populations, as we act to reduce anthropogenic climate change and its time‐sensitive negative consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: cost-benefit analysis; cost-effectiveness; detection dog; eradication; invasive species; scent; threatened species; análisis de costo-beneficio; erradicación; especie amenazada; especie invasora; olfato; perro detector; rentabilidad Perhaps the most useful of the studies that reported costs were those that compared detection dog costs to alternative techniques and provided a full itemization of the expense categories. A number of studies purchased dogs either from shelters or from professional sources for the purpose of the study; dogs sometimes worked with multiple handlers. Eleven studies compared dogs with human surveyors, although 3 of these simply made limited comments without providing supporting evidence (e.g., that dogs can reduce time and cost compared with human-based surveys [Nielsen et al. [54]], dogs are 5 times faster than humans [Bennett [7]], and dogs are 19 times faster than humans [Cristescu et al. [16]]). [Extracted from the article]

Recruitment of food science and technology graduates remains a priority for the UK food industry in the wake of skills shortages. As a result of the contemporary pressures faced by the food industry, it is essential that students applying for such roles are aware of and ready for management, leadership, and relevant professional competencies. This collaborative study uses the industry‐informed established framework, namely, Competencies for Food Graduate Careers (CFGC) and assesses the integration of this resource into careers education for food‐related programs of four higher education institutions: Cardiff Metropolitan University, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Nottingham and University of Reading. Mixed method analysis was conducted with students prior to and on conclusion of the teaching sessions, including surveys and focus groups. Students confirmed that CFGC was informative and useful for preparing them for a graduate career in food science and technology. No single method of integration of CFGC was proposed; instead, intervention can be undertaken by a variety of approaches, suitable for the level of study and Institutional operation as outlined in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]