The £2m bridges for bats that don’t work
THEY’RE designed to make sure bats don’t get killed by the traffic rushing along busy new roads.
But the 15 ‘bat bridges’ that have been built across the UK from Cumbria to Cornwall at a cost of £2million simply don’t work, say scientists.
The wire structures, or gantries, are supposed to trick the bats, which navigate using echo location, into thinking there is a tree canopy in their way, making them fly higher.
But Dr Anna Berthinussen, a bat ecologist commissioned by the Government to study the bridges said: ‘The evidence suggests that actually these structures are not
Cambridge University, added: effective, they’re not meeting ‘Wire bat bridges, or gantries, their purpose.’ have been created in many
Dr William Sutherland, who locations costing about £2million. runs the National Conservation Before and after tests Evidence Database at showed they were ineffective.’
He told BBC’s Countryfile: ‘We have good ideas, but the good ideas get turned into best practice without there being testing in between.
‘And that’s where the probno, lem is. It’s just based on faith rather than science.’
Dr Berthinussen’s study focused on seven of the bridges which were built across the Norwich Northern Distributor Road at a cost of around £1million to prevent disturbance to ‘nationally significant’ populations of Barbastelle bats – the UK’s rarest species.
Ninety per cent of bats should have been flying at a safe height within five metres of the bat bridge. But the study found more than 40 per cent were crossing at unsafe heights.
Norfolk County Council said: ‘Until several more survey seasons have been completed it is not appropriate to draw any conclusions about the effectiveness of the gantries.’
The Environment Act requires builders of new roads to mitigate effects on wildlife. Bats are disorientated by traffic noise and lights on country roads.