Bats seek refuge in cluttered environment when exposed to white and red lights at night.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Artificial light at night is recognized as an increasing threat to biodiversity. However, information on the way highly mobile taxa such as bats spatially respond to light is limited. Following the hypothesis of a behavioural adaptation to the perceived risks of predation, we hypothesised that bats should avoid lit areas by shifting their flight route to less exposed conditions.

Methods

Using 3D acoustic localization at four experimentally illuminated sites, we studied how the distance to streetlights emitting white and red light affected the Probability of bats Flying Inside the Forest (PFIF) versus along the forest edge.

Results

We show that open-, edge-, and narrow-space foraging bats strongly change flight patterns by increasing PFIF when getting closer

SUBMITTER: Barre K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7821510 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature