Young bats accept reality of climate change before older generations

By Christa Lesté-Lasserre

Noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula) in flight

Andy Harmer / Alamy

Young male bats are the first of their species to adjust to the realities of a warming world, with older generations being slower to adapt.

The noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula), a common European species, traditionally migrates more than 1500 kilometres between its northern summer roosts and its southern winter hibernation grounds. Now that is changing one generation at a time, says Kseniia Kravchenko at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, Germany.

“Due to climate change, we have areas suitable for bats all year round, without the …