Bats have a habit of flying nigh to the reason while out foraging so as to protect themselves from airborne vulture . So what happens when a new road gets put through their normal hunting ground ? regrettably , a encounter between a low - flying bat and a gondola usually goes badly for one of them . Currently , the common attack towards protecting these fauna has been at-bat gantries or bridge . These hang over roads , and are thought to put up a nerve pathway that bats can happily watch — safely above the traffic .
Unfortunately , not so much .
A novel bailiwick in PLoS ONEtracked four sites in northern England , at surveyed cricket bat activity at the ford point as well as other arena on the road . The bat appear to take almost no notice of the bridges , and still favor the dear - basis routes . They relied on established commutation path , even when the bridge was present for years and a route severed the normal course . As the study read :
Although a circumscribed study of such various complex body part can not be definitive , we believe it demonstrates that some current practice are failing . We found no evidence that flutter used gantries in preference to nearby , severed but unmitigated commuting path . At all but one site … the majority of bats crossed at unsafe heights , even in law of proximity to gantries .
While underpasses build specifically for the at-bat were marginally more successful , it depended on the type of at-bat , and relied on being built on existing paths , and not requiring bat to change their flight height .
The gantries are being used across Europe to seek and protect bats in areas of newfangled road construction , and this study has showed them to be all but useless — which means it ’s back to the drafting board to try and stop them from catch smooshed .
BiologyScience
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