A new study shows that more than 600,000 bats were killed by wind turbines in 2012 alone.
The study, published in journal BioScience, counted the number of dead bats found near the wind generators. The number is thought to be a conservative estimate by researchers, according to CBS News.
"Dead bats are being found underneath wind turbines across North America," wrote biologist Mark Hayes. "This estimate of bat fatalities is probably conservative."
The numbers could be even higher, [biologist Mark] Hayes notes, because many bat carcasses are likely carried away by scavenging animals before the researchers are able to collect them.
He added that there is little information available for bat mortality along the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountain ranges. When there was information available, he used the lowest numbers. Previous estimates ranged from 33,000 to 880,000 deaths each year."
The Washington Free Beacon reported on Thursday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is spending more than $80,000 to monitor the bat population for four months, due to concerns that green energy wind turbines are killing too many bats.