Scientists have documented for the first time that rats can catch a bat directly in flight. An infrared camera in a cave in northern Germany captured how the rat snatches the bat in flight or pounces on it shortly after landing. TASR reports this according to science.org, which refers to an article published this month in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation.
- Scientists have documented the ability of rats to catch bats in flight.
- The observations took place in the Segeberger Kalkberg cave in northern Germany.
- Rats successfully caught a bat in 13 out of 30 cases.
- Rats use their whiskers to detect air currents created by bats.
- Cave rats pose an ecological threat to bats.
Between 2021 and 2024, scientists monitored the Segeberger Kalkberg cave, approximately 50 kilometers north of Hamburg. Several thousand bats live in it, including the ciliated bat (Myotis nattereri) and the water bat (Myotis daubentonii).
During the research, they recorded 30 trials where a brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) moves on a bat counting device on a kind of overhang and tries to catch bats in the air. In thirteen cases the rat was successful. Rats can practically not see in the dark, but according to scientists, they could sense the air flow that occurs when flapping their wings with their whiskers.
Scientists estimate that even a small number of rats in a cave could catch thousands of bats. Therefore, they could represent a threat to these ecologically important animals, which has been underestimated so far. Bats could also transmit pathogens, such as coronavirus or paramyxovirus. Bats could be helped by closing the sewers that the rats use to get to the cave, or setting traps to catch the rats.
