Bats

Pflanzenschutzmittel aus der Gruppe der Neonicotinoide können nicht nur Honigbienen, sondern auch Wildbienen und Schmetterlinge gefährden. Das zeigen einmal mehr aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse britischer, US-amerikanischer und deutscher Wissenschafter. Für ihre Untersuchung analysierten Forscher um den Entomologen Ben Woodcock, wie sich der großflächige Einsatz von Neonicotinoiden auf 62 Wildbienen-Arten in Großbritannien von 1994 bis 2011 auswirkte. 2002 waren die Pestizide dort erstmals zugelassen worden.

The link has been established before. When we reduce pests with most insecticides, they discriminate too little between friend and foe. We can’t always see butterflies as friends because of the function of their caterpillars. However, as birds, reptiles and mammals rely on these insects and their relatives for food, what happens is simply Silent Spring, all over again.

Bats, generally known as a natural seed dispersers, are on the verge of extinction in the Kathmandu Valley. Keshar Mahal and Narayanhiti palace premises in Kathmandu and Sallaghari in Bhaktapur are the prime habitats of bats in the Valley. Dr Pushparaj Acharya, a research fellow at National Academy of Science and Technology, said just around 700 bats had been recorded on Keshar Mahal and Narayanhiti palace premises in the 2015. At least 1,300 bats were recorded in the previous count in 2006.

Nationally hay meadows are in decline, according to a survey carried out in the 1980s, over 97 per cent of flower rich grasslands have been lost since 1930 and those that remain are decreasing in wildlife value. Northern England was once covered in species rich upland flower meadows and even here it is estimated that only a 1000 ha remain. When a meadow is lost it is not just the flowers that disappear but the hundreds of insects including many species of butterfly and bee that rely on them and even the bats that feed on the insects.

Humans have reduced biodiversity—the teeming variety of plant and animal life that competes and co-operates in every ecosystem—to below safe levels across more than 58% of the planet’s land surface.

Der Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) hat vor der Gefährdung europäischer Fledermausarten durch Pestizide gewarnt. „Die Bestände vieler in der Agrarlandschaft vorkommender Fledermausarten sind seit dem verstärkten Einsatz von Insektiziden in den sechziger und siebziger Jahren rückläufig und teilweise sogar zusammengebrochen.

Am Chiemsee darf laut Regierung von Oberbayern weitere fünf Jahre das Mückenvernichtungsmittel BTI gespritzt werden. Bisher galt das Mittel als ungefährlich, doch Vogelschützer fürchten Konsequenzen. Der Landesbund für Vogelschutz und der Bund Naturschutz kritisieren, dass durch die massenhafte Vernichtung der Mücken massiv in die Nahrungskette eingegriffen wird. Die Larven und die Stechmücken fehlen laut den Naturschützern vielen Vögeln und Fischen als Nahrung. Auch Libellen und gefährdete Fledermäuse sind auf die Mücken als Nahrung angewiesen.

Winter 2016 bat survey results found that white-nose syndrome has spread to new bat hibernating sites in Wisconsin and is starting to decimate bat populations. "We are finding white-nose syndrome on a widespread basis, and the largest sites are all home to the fungus responsible for this disease," said Paul White, Department of Natural Resources conservation biologist leading the Wisconsin Bat Program.

The analysis of 616 papers about the diet of the European Barn Owl Tyto alba showed that 9678 invertebrates were captured out of 3.13 million prey items (0.31%). The consumption of invertebrates strongly decreased between 1860 and 2012. The present study demonstrates that the diet of a predator changed to a large extent during the last 150 years probably due to the negative impact of human activities on biodiversity. Bats and birds are less often captured nowadays than in the past.