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small insects pretty quickly. They also
don’t come out of hibernation until
the end of June, so they have just three
weeks before the period of midnight sun
is over,” he says.
Twilight is not completely risk-free for
the little animals, and Frafjord has him-
self observed a merlin on the hunt for an
exotic dinner - without succeeding.
Unfortunately, things are not going well
for north Norwegian bats. What was for-
merly the area’s largest colony, Løvhaug
in Målselv, has experienced a decline
from approximately 135 individuals in
its peak year of 2002, to about 6 adult
animals this year. Frafjord believes this
is due to the other great enemy of these
arctic bats: hard frosts.
“Bats go dormant during the winter and
must stay in a place where the tempera-
ture remains above freezing. This is usu-
ally not a major problem when there is
snow, but in recent years long periods of
snowless frost have probably taken a toll
on many bats,” says Frafjord.
The situation is the same in almost all
the known colonies in Troms, and Fraf-
jord points out that northern Norway
may quickly run out of bats.
“Bats give birth to only one young per
year, and in the north they are depend-
ent on man-made shelters to survive. But
modern houses have few places that bats
can crawl into,” explains Frafjord.
Uncertain future
A bat room has been specially construct-
ed at Løvhaug for the dwindling colony,
but so far the little animals prefer to stay
in the houses where they have previously
lived. Why do they insist on living under
such harsh conditions to begin with?
“It is in the nature of all species to push
the limits of what the animals can toler-
ate. If the populations in Troms should
University of Tromsø – Labyrint E/13 ••• 45
Text: Linn Sollied Madsen
Photo: Jeroen van der Kooij