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Dutch Town Uses High-Tech Streetlights To Keep Their Bats Happy
Since streetlights disturb bats' internal sensors and rhythms and affect their feeding patterns, inner compasses, and general nocturnal behaviors, the Dutch town of Zuidhoek-Nieuwkoop is taking action. The town is using special streetlights that emit a red color and use a wavelength that doesn't interfere with a bat's internal compass and lets them feed undisturbed. The Next Web reports: The lights [developed by Signify and the University of Wageningen and other NGO's active in conservation], being both beneficial for bats and humans alike, are also proving to be extremely energy saving, and is therefore also a big plus for the environment and the town's carbon footprint. The lights are connected LED lights that can be controlled remotely. This means that if there is one particular neighborhood in need of more or less light, this can be adjusted as needed.
Zuidhoek-Nieuwkoop, due to their specific natural surroundings, is keen on being a sustainable town. The town and its surrounding area are part of the nature-protection network Natura 2000, which protects breeding and nesting areas for rare and threatened species all over Europe.
Zuidhoek-Nieuwkoop, due to their specific natural surroundings, is keen on being a sustainable town. The town and its surrounding area are part of the nature-protection network Natura 2000, which protects breeding and nesting areas for rare and threatened species all over Europe.
Is this a different town than the one where people got annoyed at the red lights, saying they didn't like the color and didn't like how they were 'experimented' on without prior knowledge and thus the red lights were switched out?
Yes, this is the vampire haven we've all been craving...
Always amazed when my fellow countrymen come up with these things. I think it shows the great attention to detail we spend on building infrastructure.
This is the same country where certain traffic lights for bike lanes would get preference when it was raining so people on bikes could get home quicker.
New things are always on the horizon
I hope this spreads. Not just for the bats' sake, but because white light (and the blue frequencies in particular) tend to disrupt the sleep patterns of any mammal, including humans. Red lights let us see where we're going without keeping us awake.
So when I was a kid, in the summertime the bats would feed around the streetlights at night starting at dusk. Catch all the insects hanging around the lights.
Either the bats, or the people observing them, have gotten stupider in the interim apparently.
Bats are affected by streetlights? Or are they affected by those shitty LED streetlights with the harsh bluish light(high color temperature) and the atrocious CRI that are being installed everywhere?
I haven't noticed any impact on bats from white mercury vapor or orange High-pressure Sodium(also poor but better than most LED CRI) streetlights.
On a tangential note, shouldn't the Dutch only use orange high-pressure sodium? Seems like a no-brainer to me.
You can develop black and white film by streetlight
Please don't. Chemicals for developing black and white photos have been proven to cause cancer in bats in the State of California.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Having reddish streetlights would help astronomy by creating less light pollution in the more sensitive blue and green frequencies.
However, sodium vapor lamps are better, as they are easy to filter out since they produce a narrow frequency band.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
The article says that bats are blind. That is not true ... Bats have reasonably good eyesight. If they were truly blind, then streetlights would not bother them a bit.
"Blind as a bat" is completely wrong.
Red lights keep the nocturnal creatures in my town happy too ...
And apparently, bats, although being blind, are bothered by streetlights.
Bats aren't blind.
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
Makkinga removed all street signs, traffic lights, sidewalks, and fines, resulting in fewer accidents, increased safety, and nicer town. The dutch seem to care about science and data more than some other countries.
... batshit crazy.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Not an American and ride a bike wherever I go, thank you very much. You need a better headlight if you think that you need street lights. I use a B&M IQ Fly Premium and ride through a forest in total darkness occasionally, just for fun because it's such a great light. Flashlights were impractical just a decade ago, but LED flashlights are cheap, tiny, bright, robust and last many hours on a single charge. And if you still think this is impractical, although people are riding and walking where there are no street lights, then at least make the street lights motion activated. Light pollution is a problem, not just for bats.
Right. So how do I get from Overloon to Berg en Dal at 9pm?
Shit, how do I get from the Openlucht museum in Arnhem to the water museum, out to the Airborne Museum Hartenstein, down to the titchy museum by the bridge then back out to the zoo in the same day by public transport, let alone with enough time to do things at all of those locations, not to mention getting to Arnhem in the first place.
Yeah, I drive in tight European cities. Fucking sue me.