Night lights and bat sleep-ins

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-08-30 03:00

New Zealand

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Human light pollution could be changing the behaviour of New Zealand's critically threatened pekapeka tou-roa/long-tailed bat, and locking it out of foraging areas. Research carried out near Hamilton detected the bats less frequently – and about 2 hours later – in areas with LED floodlighting compared to dark areas. The researchers say our expanding urban areas could more frequently expose native bats to light pollution, and prevent them from getting to food.