"Researchers were filming bats to learn how they communicate when they swarm and during a routine watch of the live footage they saw something that shocked them: A rat grabbed a bat and bit it. "We thought, oh well, that's an unlucky coincidence," says Mirjam Knornschild, co-author of the paper and head of evolutionary diversity dynamics at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin. But then it happened again. And again. The rats could even snatch a bat flying in mid-air."
"The study reveals as urbanization increasingly encroaches upon bat-safe caves, invasive, city-dwelling rats are likely to follow. "This just adds to the threats that bats are already experiencing," says Knornschild. "We need to find smarter ways to keep the wildlife that follows us around away from bats." Knornschild was fascinated by the attacks, which were captured in the pitch dark, using an infrared camera to film the northern Germany cave."
Infrared footage from caves in northern Germany captured brown rats grabbing and biting bats, including snatching bats in mid-air. Attacks occurred repeatedly at multiple hibernation sites, with investigators finding bitten bat remains. The brown rats likely originated from nearby human activity, such as an open-air theater that attracts tourists and trash. Urbanization-related encroachment and invasive, city-dwelling rats bring a new predation pressure on bat colonies. Rat attacks create potential for physical transmission of bat viruses to other animals or humans, prompting calls for strategies to keep synanthropic wildlife away from bat roosts.
Read at www.npr.org
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