<span style="color: #222222;">According to a study, bats may be well adapted to wildfire. The study surveyed the effects of burn severity of 17 species of the flying mammal in forests that experienced fires. </span><br />” <br />” <span style="color: #222222;">The researchers, including those from the University of California (UC) Davis in the US, said, while many forest bats are adapted to dense spaces, and others with open habitats. Researchers found that species from both groups preferred burned forests to unburned or minimally burned forests.</span><br />” <span style="color: #222222;">&nbsp;<br />” To understand how wildfire was affecting bat habitat, the researchers used an acoustic surveying technology with microphones that emitted very high-frequency sound and tracked patterns in the way bats communicated. </span><br />” <br />” <span style="color: #222222;">The recordings were converted into visualizations of bat calls, using which the scientists could identify the species present, and compare their occurrence rates to habitat conditions.</span><br />” <span style="color: #222222;"><br />” The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, noted that while individual species responded to wildfire differently, the overall richness of bats increased from about eight species in unburned forests to 11 in forests that experienced moderate- to high-severity burns. </span><br />” <br />” <span style="color: #222222;">The researchers said these openings are entry ways for bats to better find insects to eat, along with dead trees that provided a roosting habitat for some of them.</span><br />