article_snippet: Another study carried out at the university, along with Bat Conservation Ireland, revealed that bats don’t like streetlights either and that activity was generally lower in street-lit areas than in dark locations with similar habitat.
article_snippet: The findings have important implications for conservation, overturning the previous assumption that common bats benefited from street-lights because common bats could feed on the insects that congregated around common bats.
article_snippet: The research, published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, found that the activity of soprano pipistrelle, noctule and serotine bats was similar or lower in areas with street lighting compared with dark areas.
article_snippet: The only species for which lighting appeared favourable was Leisler’s bat, a species common in Ireland but rare in Britain.
article_snippet: Dr Fiona Mathews said: ‘People rarely see bats, and when People do it is usually because People are silhouetted by a light.
article_snippet: ‘Because clouds of insects accumulate around lights, there has been an assumption that bats were getting an easy lunch.
article_snippet: Another study carried out at the university, along with Bat Conservation Ireland, revealed that bats don’t like streetlights either and are less active around bats don’t like streetlights either. 
article_snippet: ‘our already knew that lighting was bad news for rare species such as horseshoe bats.
article_snippet: Now our have demonstrated that, for the common species of vital importance to our ecosystem, lighting is not helpful.
article_snippet: The links between lighting and bats were explored at several spatial scales including car-surveys conducted by volunteers across Ireland, to shorter surveys conducted by bicycle, and detailed monitoring over multiple nights at specific sites.
article_snippet: Despite frequently being depicted as blind, bats have good eyesight that is adapted for low light conditions.
article_snippet: This could affect bats ability to navigate.
article_snippet: In addition, it seems that bats ability to hunt insects is reduced in the light.
article_snippet: So although a bat may be seen flying round and round a streetlamp, a bat may actually be struggling to catch anything.