Patterns of bat activity and mortalities at wind energy facilities suggest that bats are attracted to wind turbines based on bat behavioral responses to wind turbines. For example, current monitoring efforts suggest that bat activity increases post-wind turbine construction, with bats making multiple passes near wind turbines. We separated the attraction hypothesis into five previously proposed explanations of bat interactions at or near wind turbines, including attraction based on noise, roost sites, foraging and water, mating behavior, and lights, and one new hypothesis regarding olfaction, and provide a state of the knowledge in 2022. Our review indicates that future research should prioritize attraction based on social behaviors, such as mating and scent-marking, as this aspect of the attraction hypothesis has many postulates and remains the most unclear. Relatively more data regarding attraction to wind turbines based on lighting and noise emission exist, and these data indicate that these are unlikely attractants. Analyzing attraction at the species-level should be prioritized because of differences in foraging, flight, and social behavior among bat species. Lastly, research assessing bat attraction at various scales, such as the turbine or facility scale, is lacking, which could provide important insights for both wind turbine siting decisions and bat mortality minimization strategies. Identifying the causes of bat interactions with wind turbines is critical for developing effective impact minimization strategies.

We used the lesser prairie‐chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus), an iconic grouse species that exhibits a boom–bust life history strategy, on the Southern High Plains, USA, as a bioindicator of main and interactive effects of severe drought and grazing. This region experienced the worst drought on record in 2011. We surveyed lesser prairie‐chicken leks (i.e., communal breeding grounds) across 12 years that represented 7 years before the 2011 drought (predrought) and 4 years during and following the 2011 drought (postdrought). Grazing was annually managed with the objective of achieving ≤50% utilization of aboveground vegetation biomass. We used lek (n = 49) count data and covariates of weather and managed grazing to: (a) estimate long‐term lesser prairie‐chicken abundance and compare abundance predrought and postdrought; (b) examine the influence of annual and seasonal drought (modified Palmer drought index), temperature, and precipitation on long‐term lesser prairie‐chicken survival and recruitment; and (c) assess and compare the influence of grazing on lesser prairie‐chicken population predrought and postdrought. Lesser prairie‐chicken abundance was nearly seven times greater predrought than postdrought, and population declines were attributed to decreased survival and recruitment. The number of days with temperature >90th percentile had the greatest effect, particularly on recruitment. The population exhibited a substantial bust during 2011 and 2012 without a boom to recover in four postdrought years. Adaptive grazing positively influenced the population predrought, but had no effects postdrought. Results suggest that the severe drought in 2011 may have been beyond the range of environmental conditions to which lesser prairie‐chickens, and likely other species, have adapted. Land management practices, such as grazing, should remain adaptive to ensure potential negative influences to all species are avoided. Increasing habitat quantity and quality by reducing habitat loss and fragmentation likely will increase resiliency of the ecosystem and individual species.