Bats Avoid Flying By Streetlight

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Bats Avoid Flying By Streetlight

Postby Squirrel Girl » Jun 22, 2009 3:46 pm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8108912.stm

Scientists have found that, as bats travel to feeding grounds, they avoid hedgerows illuminated by streetlights.

Reporting in the journal Current Biology, they say this could cause bats to use longer and less safe routes.

The researchers studied the effect with artificial lights along flight routes used by lesser horseshoe bats.
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Re: Bats Avoid Flying By Streetlight

Postby wyandottecaver » Jun 22, 2009 8:05 pm

Odd

The bats seem to congregate around our security light and don't seem hesitant to dip water off our illuminated pool. We are fairly rural and I always figured our security light acted like a big bat feeding station :big grin:
I'm not scared of the dark, it's the things IN the dark that make me nervous. :)
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Re: Bats Avoid Flying By Streetlight

Postby Ralph E. Powers » Jun 22, 2009 8:34 pm

Same here, there are a lot fewer mosquitoes around my house because of the street light next to it and only one or two ... uh... make that one moth flittering around...no, that's gone too. heh...
But wonders how a detour might be more dangerous... ?
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Re: Bats Avoid Flying By Streetlight

Postby Grandpa Caver » Jun 22, 2009 10:18 pm

Squirrel Girl wrote:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8108912.stm

Scientists have found that, as bats travel to feeding grounds, they avoid hedgerows illuminated by streetlights.


Well there's your problem. Here in America, we've got hedges and we've got fence rows but we've got no hedgerows. Just build yourself one of them hedgerows, light it up, then see what happens. I'll bet there would'nt be a bat in sight!

Hmmm...Maybe we should put street lights and a hedgerow around all the WNS states to keep it from spreading.
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Re: Bats Avoid Flying By Streetlight

Postby graveleye » Jun 23, 2009 7:50 am

if there's a bustling in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed, man.
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Re: Bats Avoid Flying By Streetlight

Postby Squirrel Girl » Jun 23, 2009 3:53 pm

I've got a hedgerow in my yard, and it's only a little bitty townhouse lot. In the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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Re: Bats Avoid Flying By Streetlight

Postby Grandpa Caver » Jun 23, 2009 4:16 pm

Squirrel Girl wrote:I've got a hedgerow in my yard, and it's only a little bitty townhouse lot. In the Commonwealth of Virginia.


Hehe, yup, I used to have one too but it was always called simply "the bushes", same as everyone elses. I've always associated the term "hedgerow" with England.

Re: the bats...I suspect from reading the article and my own experience (same as Ralph & Wyandottes) that the type or color of light used is what put off the bats. Or maybe they've got a more a more aggressive night flying predator over there than us. The only one I can think of around here is owls and I've never heard of them having bats very high on thier menu.
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Re: Bats Avoid Flying By Streetlight

Postby Joseph W. Dixon » Aug 2, 2009 9:34 pm

Although this was an interesting article, the bat in the article (Rhinolophus hipposideros) is a European species and there is no evidence to support the hypothesis that their behavior would be universal and applicable to North American species.
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Re: Bats Avoid Flying By Streetlight

Postby Phil Winkler » Aug 3, 2009 8:18 am

Brian,

I've watched an owl catch and eat several bats. This owl had a nest at the bottom of Punkin Pit in Texas. In the evening when the bats would spiral out of the entrance he would casually fly up into the swarm, grab his dinner and land back in his nest to eat it. We never saw him leave the cave. He had it made.
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