Dwindling of Bat Population Costs Europe More Billions Annually

Bat is a controversial nocturnal  creature.

It pushes man to imitate it, fight it, but later regrets to annihilate it.

However, some studies shed light on many benefits that could be attained from bat, especially in agriculture.

Bat feeds on preys of insects across the Western Europe.

Farmers, who think bats intrude into their crops, beat and chase those intruders.

This  led to reduction in numbers of bats in the European countries since the last years of the 20th century.

But another studies pointed out that spread of deforesting and intensifying cultivation put more pressure on bats. They can not find sufficient food .

A study conducted in 2015 revealed that bats saved about one billion dollar to growers of maize across the world. They fight insects and rodents that devour that crop in various continents.

Farmers are bracing to use another alternatives as populations of bats diminished significantly throughout the last years. They increased amounts of pesticide to put insect numbers  under control.

Some researchers hope to introduce friendly- environment methods within years to come to keep the balance of the bio-persity in Europe.

It is worth to mention that bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera,  with their forelimbs adapted as wings. They are the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. They are more maneuverable than birds, flying with their very long spread-out digits covered with a thin membrane.

The smallest bat, and arguably the smallest extant mammal, is Kitti's hog-nosed bat, which is 29–34 mm (1.14–1.34 in) in length, 15 cm (5.91 in) across the wings and 2–2.6 g (0.07–0.09 oz) in mass.

The largest bats are the flying foxes and the giant golden-crowned flying fox  weigh 1.6 kg (4 lb) and have a wingspan of 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in).

The second largest order of mammals, bats comprise about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide, with over 1,200 species.