Javier Rodrigo |
Pamplona (EFE).- The hibernating bats of the Iberian Peninsula, after spending the winter dormant in trees, caves and fissures, are waking up in the months of March and April, and the females prepare to ovulate to have a young that will be born in June or July. So don’t bother them.
The biologist Juan Tomás Alcalde, president of the Spanish Association for the Conservation and Study of Bats, is working these days to review the wooden boxes installed in Pamplona to sample the specimens that still remain in them.
On one of his walks, while inserting a small camera through the entrance holes of the boxes, he explained to EFE that there are 31 species of bats on the Iberian Peninsula, each with its own different way of life and different types of shelters.
three types of bats
Experts distinguish three types of bats: cavemen, which are those that live in caves; the arboreal ones, who take refuge in tree holes, often in woodpecker nests; and fissures, which enter cracks in rocks, but also cracks in buildings and other constructions.
In Spain, fisuricolous bats are the most frequent and also “they have been favored by humans, because we have made many houses, and among the tiles and stones they find a lot of refuge, with which they have adapted well to the human environment and are very frequent,” he said.
The most common are the dwarf bat (“Pipistrellus pipistrellus”), the Cabrera bat (“Pipistrellus pygmaeus”) and the light-edged bat (“Pipistrellus kuhlii”), which are anthropophilic species, since they seek refuge in human environments and in fact They don’t mind hunting, for example, around streetlights. “They are the typical ones that we usually see in towns and cities,” said Mayor.
These Pipistrellus bats are very small. Their body and head can measure about four or five centimeters, they weigh between four and eight grams, and with open wings they have a wingspan that does not reach twenty centimeters.
The largest on the Peninsula would be the Greater Noctule (“Nyctalus lasiopterus”) or the Tailed Bat (“Tadarida teniotis”), which have a wingspan of almost half a meter and weigh between fifty and sixty grams, some titans compared to their cousins. of smaller size.
More numerous in Levanta and Andalusia
Although bats are widespread throughout the Spanish geography, there are places where there are larger populations and a greater number of species. “In principle, warm areas have more insects and therefore there are more bat populations. Especially in Andalucía and Levante is where the largest populations are concentrated and sometimes form colonies of thousands of individuals”, highlighted the biologist while watching a group of bats huddled inside one of the boxes on the screen of his mobile.
Areas rich in bats are also those that are well preserved and have a diversity of refuges, such as canyons, mature forests, and rivers with old trees, which “are particularly valuable areas,” he highlighted.
Alcalde has highlighted that the arboreal bats are the least known bats of the three groups, “because it is difficult to locate their refuges and they also depend a lot on forest management of the forests. There are many forests in which we do not let the trees grow old and find no refuge. They depend on the presence of old trees and that they are also abundant, because very few specimens of the colony fit in each tree”.
For this reason, he has stressed that old trees and dead trees that are still standing “are extremely valuable for bats and for other species of vertebrates and invertebrates. They should be preserved, because they are vital”.
An endangered species
But not only the lack of shelters is threatening bats, since some infrastructures are causing high mortality. For example, it is estimated that in Spain between 300,000 and 400,000 bats die each year in wind farms, the Mayor said.
In Spain at the moment there is only one species in danger of extinction, the “Muietis capachini”, a riverside mouse bat that is distributed mainly in the Levant and Andalusia. In addition, there are eleven species of bats considered vulnerable, which are not in danger of extinction, but their populations have greatly decreased in recent years.
Visitors to the natural environment can also inadvertently cause damage to bat colonies. In fact, there are already many caves in Spain that are closed to the public during certain times of the year so as not to disturb bats during the periods when they are most vulnerable.
“Anyone who enters a cave and sees a bat, the logical thing to do is take a look at it, leave it alone with its rest and try to disturb them as little as possible, because bat populations are very fragile, they reproduce very slowly, only one baby per female and year, and their populations have recently declined due to human actions”, lamented the biologist.
Change the bad image of bats
The mayor has recognized that bats have a bad press: “It is a cultural issue. In our culture we have always associated the dark, the nocturnal, with the dangerous. People normally don’t see the bat up close, they see a black spot flying and it’s already a bit embarrassing because of the unknown”. It is something that does not happen, for example, in Chinese culture, where seeing bats has traditionally been considered something positive and a reason for joy.
“Here we have to change the image, because bats are not really dangerous, they are not harmful, on the contrary, they feed on insects and their impact on the environment and on our interests is very good, because they take away pests and even mosquitoes that they can bite and transmit diseases, so their effect is very positive”, indicated Alcalde.
