Baby boom

Peak season for a new “Batman” crop

There are 30 species of bat in Austria. Burgenland alone is home to 24 of them, the province with the highest number of bats. Thousands of new young are currently being born.

Bats are real aerialists. They prefer a free, single life and don't care about partnerships and fidelity. Only in the fall, before moving into their winter quarters, do males and females meet to mate. "To reproduce, they also interrupt their hibernation from time to time. The sperm is then stored in the female reproductive organs. However, fertilization only takes place in spring," says Alexander Gutstein, zoologist at BatLife Austria.