Where do bats go in the winter?

Bats are quite visible in Norwegian skies during the summer, but scientists are not quite sure what happens to them in winter.

(English subtitles are available in the video settings. Video by: Arnfinn Christensen)

We visit Kooij van der Jeroen from the Norwegian Zoological Association to ask what really happens to bats during the winter. He shows us how scientists are trying to solve the mystery.

“We have searched with lights and lanterns in mines and caves in hundreds of underground facilities. We find a few hundred bats, but that is not even a thousandth of the numbers we find in the summer,” says van der Jeroen.

He also shows us a bat guest house he has set up in his backyard. Here, he takes care of injured bats.

“You have to be extremely interested in bats, since you have that bat house in your backyard?

“Yes, I am.”

“Why?”

“They are such exciting animals. They are almost like fantasy animals that actually exist,” says van der Jeroen.

In the video below, you can take a peek inside van der Jeroen's back yard bat house. Enlish subtitles are available in the video settings: 

(Video by Arnfinn Christensen)

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Read the Norwegian version of this article at forskning.no

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