The »Bulldog Bat« from Landsberg
Created: 09/18/2022, 08:00
By: Sabine Fleischer
Bat expert Michael Comes-Lipps gives a voice to bats hunting over the Lech with the bat detector.
© Fleischer
Landsberg – That local bats are bloodsuckers and like to get tangled in their hair – absolute fake facts.
The hunters of the night shy away from human contact and prefer to attack insects.
In order to survive, the animal needs one thing above all: no disturbances when sleeping or in the nursery.
The Landsberg bat tour provides information on how to help the 'fluttering mice'.
The German word 'Fledermaus' comes from 'flutter' and 'mouse'.
On the one hand, the only mammals capable of flight look really similar to rodents, on the other hand, some species like mice actually seem to 'flutter' over the ground.
There are 1,700 species worldwide, but only 24 of them live in Bavaria.
The most common species in the district are the pipistrelle (fits in a matchbox), the water bat, and the mouse and long-eared bats of the smooth-nosed family.
The contact person in the district of Landsberg is bat expert Michael Comes-Lipps.
On his bat performance in front of the district office and mother tower he tells interesting facts.
You already learn in elementary school that people use echo to search for food.
Not everyone knows that the little night predators also hold all kinds of records: depending on the species, their heart beats up to 1,000 times a minute, their larynx muscles contract up to 200 times a second, their speed can reach 100 kilometers per hour, the Females catch their babies with their wings during birth and use their smell and voice to find them among thousands of cave dwellers.
And they can live up to 40 years.
During the summer months, bats live in places without a large draft and with constant temperatures, in tree hollows, behind wooden paneling on buildings, in church towers and also in artificial nesting boxes.
"They just like it tight and cuddly," says Comes-Lipps, describing the sleeping quarters of the little animals, which should ideally be set up at a height of five meters or more.
They are less sensitive to noise, and a small colony of bats has long felt at home in the church tower in Erpfting.
In autumn, some species migrate up to 1,500 kilometers to frost-free winter quarters.
The Bat Detector
There are also numerous specimens in Landsberg.
If you are lucky, you can see the hunters of the night scurrying out of the built-in nesting boxes on the facade of the district office.
A bat detector helps to get a better look at them: a small device that makes the echo calls of the bats audible.
This is how Comes-Lipps makes some nightshades visible to the human eye.
Because: The animals fly so fast over the river along the Lechwall to catch insects that the observer can hardly see them in the twilight.
"The animals 'scream' differently, hence the different frequency tones," the expert explains the sound and timing of the beep tones.
And just at this moment, a deep rattling sounds like a tractor.
The expert jokes that Landsberg's "Bulldog Bat" is on the way.
Successful hunters often eat their prey hanging from a branch.
The small flying mammals have to eat a third of their body weight every day.
Since beetles and the like often crawl on the ground, the robbers also walk over the ground on all fours.
Water bats even have small fish on their menu.
As for most animals, man is their worst enemy.
Destroyed natural areas, disturbance of peace, a lack of sleeping and nesting places, road traffic and, above all, the decline in insects as a source of food affect the bats.
Therefore they are under nature protection.
18 of the Bavarian species are on the Red List.
Problems with them should be reported to the District Office.
Injured or dead bats must be handled with leather gloves because in rare cases there is a risk of rabies.
If a bat really gets lost in your apartment or house: just leave it alone and open the window.
The little insect eaters find their way out on their own.
