Dark Matters: The Effects of Artificial Lighting on Bats

Daubenton’s bat by Chris Damant

While artificial lighting is a major component of global change, its biological impacts have only recently been recognised.

Artificial lighting attracts and repels animals in taxon-specific ways and affects physiological processes.

Being nocturnal, bats are likely to be strongly affected by artificial lighting. Moreover, many species of bats are insectivorous, and insects are also strongly influenced by lighting. Lighting technologies are changing rapidly, with the use of light-emitting diode (LED) lamps increasing. Impacts on bats and their prey depend on the light spectra produced by street lights ; ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths attract more insects and consequently insectivorous bats. Bat responses to lighting are species-specific and reflect differences in flight morphology and performance ; fast-flying aerial hawking species frequently feed around street lights, whereas relatively slow-flying bats that forage in more confined spaces are often light-averse