The videos are wild though! Never seen rats hunt. They really just sit and wait in the dark, not seeing shit, and snatch bats from the air.
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2025
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Oh. My.
That video.
😳
Nice bit of work! Good that they supplied the supplemental videos, bit funny that they’re videos of videos.
An invasive rat using a man-made platform in a natural cave to decimate bat population and create a vector for disease.
It would’ve been nice if any of the humans in the article had offered potential solutions to fixing this problem we created.
Edit: I didn’t see the scientific paper linked at the bottom. Added to my reading list, hopefully there are some solutions there.
Edit 2: They’ve got some ideas:
Furthermore, straightforward infrastructure modifications can restrict rat access to bat hibernacula. For example, removing the black fabric that acted as a climbing aid at the Segeberg Kalkberg entrance eliminated predation around the light-barrier system. Additional measures – such as sealing foundation joints, blocking connections from caves to sewers and modernizing drainage systems - can prevent dispersal via sewers (Adrichem van et al., 2013). Active control should then be guided by a quantitative baseline of rat abundance: capture-mark-recapture grids, camera trap encounter rates or chew-card bite indices can clarify whether predation is driven by a few transient individuals or by a resident colony (Cavia et al., 2012, Nottingham et al., 2021, Mackenzie et al., 2022). Mechanical traps and, where legally permissible, strictly regulated rodenticides remain core tools, while integrated programs in Amsterdam and Rotterdam show that coupling waste management, public outreach, habitat modification and ongoing sewer maintenance can be highly effective (Adrichem van et al., 2013, Cock et al., 2024) Together, these measures can limit invasive-rat predation at urban hibernacula, reinforce bat-conservation objectives and reduce potential public health risks within a One-Health framework.
“Let’s introduce owls. That kind of thing never causes unintended consequences!”
of all the animals rodents and bats carry the most lethal diseases: rabiesviruses, ebolavirus, and rodents hantaviruses, poxviruses.
Realistically I don't think they (as in the authors) as researchers can do much... but as you pointed out, there are possible ways to deal with this. Rats are common pests and I would be surprised if there aren't some experts out there, so I am hoping that even acknowledging this issue alone would lead to better outcomes. This paper got quite a bit of traction so it definitely helps
First it was bat's catching birds in mid flight, now rats are catching bats? What else will we discover related to catching and bats?
on trista cunha island, mouse grew to double the size to hunt the native albatross chicks, which decimated the population.
Every time I learn a new fact about rats I get more and more alarmed