Bat out of hell
27 June, 2026
What happens when wildlife is exposed to the electromagnetic fields emitted by high voltage powerlines, mobile phone towers, WiFi networks and other sources?
To help answer that question, Oliver Lindecke and team conducted an experiment on small, migratory mammals - soprano pipistrelle bats.
‘Bats are an ideal mammalian comparative model for such research because they share many similarities to small night-migrating songbirds in terms of the distances they move and the ecological challenges they face,’ the authors said.
The researchers exposed the bats to weak levels of radiofrequency (wireless) radiation (at 0-300 MHz) for approximately thirty minutes while the animals were observing the sunset, then tested their flight orientation later in the night.
The reason for choosing sunset for the exposure was that soprano pipistrelle bats migrating towards their wintering grounds are known to calibrate environmental cues at sunset for navigation later at night.
The authors found that unexposed bats flew in the expected migratory direction. However, the exposed bats took off in random directions. Not only that, but the experiment showed that ‘electromagnetic noise exposure disrupts the orientation of bats several hours beyond the exposure period,’ the authors said.
These findings suggest that electromagnetic noise pollution has the potential to have a greater effect on animal behaviour than had previously been assumed. It raises questions about the ecological consequences of electromagnetic noise for wildlife moving through human-dominated landscapes, such as animals that migrate seasonally, even if they do so only briefly.
Richard Holland, Professor in Animal Behaviour at Bangor University said, ‘This finding was quite surprising. Our intention was to see how the noise would affect the magnetic sensing system of bats, but the results suggest that the impact of this electromagnetic noise is more complicated than that. Although it is known that electromagnetic noise in this range disrupts the magnetic sense, it was not previously assumed to have a significant impact on migrating animals, because it is more prevalent in cities than rural areas. It was assumed that because animals would move rapidly through it, they would not be affected for very long, if at all. However, our findings indicate that even brief exposure can have effects that last beyond the period of exposure, and independently of other cues.’
Will Schneider, Research Fellow at Bangor University and co-author of the study said, ‘this surprising carryover effect has the potential for significant ecological consequences that were not predicted by our current understanding of the effects of electromagnetic noise. It is also worrying that current exposure standards are designed exclusively to humans, leaving wildlife vulnerable even within the confines of these guidelines.’
Oliver Lindecke et al. Disruptive effects of brief radiofrequency noise exposure on migratory bat navigation. Science392,977-979(2026). https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq4418