A heart for small flying mammals

It doesn't always have to be old walls or attics that provide shelter for the little flying artists. Bat roosts can also be installed in new buildings. The city of Offenbach on Buchhügel shows that even a building clad with zinc sheets can provide a summer roost for the endangered flying mammals.

On the initiative of Offenbach's Office for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection and with nature conservation advice and support from the Friedberg planning office NaturProfil, the Frankfurt architects Meixner - Schlüter - Wendt have integrated six bat roosting tubes into the façade. They serve as summer roosts for common noctule bats, dwarf bats, broad-winged bats and hoary bats, among others.
To the delight of the City of Offenbach as the client, the Stadtwerke Offenbach Unternehmensgruppe (SOH) as the building owner and the Offenbacher Stadtinformation Gesellschaft (OSG), which is responsible for visitor management, the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) and the State of Hesse have now paid special tribute to the municipality's commitment to the protection of endangered bat species.

The visitor center at Wetterpark Offenbach, which opened in July 2014, is the 850th building in Hesse to receive the "Bat Friendly House" award. NABU state chairman Gerhard Eppler presented a certificate to the city of Offenbach, represented by environmental department head Heike Hollerbach, and also handed over a colorful, weatherproof stainless steel plaque that will now adorn the entrance to the building.

The municipal authority sees the provision of bat roosts as a piece of environmental education and wants to draw attention to the threat to flying mammals with the summer roosts in the Wetterpark. Heike Hollerbach announces that her office will offer accompanying lectures and excursions.

With the "Bat-Friendly House" campaign launched in 2006, NABU, together with the state of Hesse and the Hessian Nature Conservation Foundation, is campaigning for the preservation and construction of bat roosts. Hesse is home to 19 of the approximately 1000 species worldwide. According to NABU project manager Petra Gatz, their population is in sharp decline because their natural living conditions have deteriorated drastically. More than half of the native bat species are dependent on the vital shelter provided by buildings.

Contact person is Petra Gatz
Phone 06441 6790425
petra.gatznabu-hessende

The useful insect exterminators, which are protected throughout Europe and, as subtenants, neither make noise nor damage the building fabric, are finding fewer and fewer vital hiding places such as tree hollows, wall crevices or roof trusses.

At the Wetterpark visitor center, graduate engineer Martin Goldhammer has installed six bat flat boxes made of wood-concrete flush with the façade. On the recommendation of NaturProfil planners Martin Schaefer and Claus Rosenstein, they face south-west. This creates a more pleasant indoor climate for the bats. The nocturnal flying artists can use the dwellings to raise their young and as a daytime hiding place.

The openings are easy for the animals to fly into. They can easily cling to a small wooden grooved board in front of the entrance. The cavities face upwards so that no rainwater can penetrate and the animals' droppings can fall out at the bottom. The entrance width has been dimensioned so that the bats can enter easily, but enemies such as martens or cats are kept away.

"We are delighted," says OSG Managing Director Regina Preis, "that we can not only draw attention to climate protection with our visitor center, but also make a contribution to protecting the local bat population."

According to the nature conservation experts, the area on the Buchhügel with its many biotopes offers ideal hunting grounds for bats. They now also find excellent roosting opportunities here.

Anyone who is interested in the NABU "Bat-friendly house" campaign and would like to make their property bat-friendly can find more information on the NABU Hessen website: