Researchers make surprising discovery about beavers' impact on other wildlife: 'Incredible ability'

As beaver populations increase in an ecosystem and they begin to redesign their habitats, there is an encouraging corresponding influx of bat activity, new research shows.

This is in large part due to beavers' propensity to reshape their environment. As they build dams and redirect freshwater, they effectively reinvigorate ecosystems. Ecologi explained that beavers have an "incredible ability to create new wetlands."

After being hunted nearly to extinction in the U.K., beavers are now being systematically reintroduced to wetlands, and the outcome has been astounding. Releasing beavers back into their wetland homes will alleviate flooding, improve water quality, and boost biodiversity.

Researchers at UWE Bristol studied bat activity in areas where beavers have been reintroduced as opposed to areas with no beavers — and found that bat activity is as much as 393% higher in the wetlands where beavers live.

This is heartening news at a time when researchers say that a quarter of freshwater species are facing extinction because of the destruction of their habitats.

Bats are amazingly effective at pest control, with the ability to eat thousands of insects per night. While it's not proven that they sustain these hourly rates, their nightly hunts still help control insect populations — particularly mosquitoes, which can spread disease.

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Tim Carter, a bat expert and associate professor of biology at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, told Alabama's AL.com: "A lot of people will tell you bats eat probably about half their body weight in insects a night, so that's a substantial amount. That's one way to think about it."

Bats are one of nature's most important pollinators, too. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "While many bats eat insects, others feed on nectar and provide critical pollination for a variety of plants like peaches, cloves, bananas and agaves."

Dr. Paul Lintott, who headed the UWE Bristol study, explained: "The full importance of beavers to our landscapes has only recently begun to be understood … we are now seeing that beavers can help other wildlife thrive, including protected species such as bats.

"As beaver-modified rivers become more widespread across the U.K., it is exciting to know that they will be creating valuable habitats for many other native and endangered wildlife species," he continued.