Drivers have been left baffled after only just learning what the 'strange-looking' wire poles they see over motorways and other roads are really for.
Most people will have spotted the various different poles and wires that go around, across, and over roads and motorways across the country. While many are easy to identify as lampposts and telephone poles, it's not always clear what some of them are for.
This was the case for one UK driver, who took to Reddit to ask about a peculiar-looking structure they saw above. They took to Reddit's AskUK forum to find answers as they shared a picture taken at the Norwich Northern Distributor Road (NDR), which showed a pole on either side of the road, with wires shaped as a 'V' connected them.
"What are these things over roads? I've always been told it's for animals, but being clueless I can't imagine a rabbit or vole hopping up and over without falling through the holes! I've tried searching with Google lens or whatever it is but it just gives me telegraph poles!" they wrote on the Reddit post.
People quickly took to the comment section to explain what the peculiar-looking bridge in the photo is. They explained it is one of several bat bridges that have been implemented across the UK.
"Bat bridges," one simply replied.
Another wrote: "Bats like connectivity of linear features such as hedgerows and woodland edges for commuting. We keep destroying these and the bat bridges were an attempt to mitigate for habitat loss. I don't know how effective they are, but they weren't put up there for fun."
Someone else explained: "The idea is that they encourage bats to fly higher, out of the way of passing vehicles. When the ground is lowered for the motorways, these things are built above. Bats detect it with their sonar as if it were a hedgerow. Bats don't fly into traffic."
"That's the idea anyhow," they added.
Another person added: "I was gonna joke and say a seagull bridge. Turns out I wasn't far off the truth."
Bat bridges are specialised structures, often wire gantries, built over roads to guide bats, which navigate by echolocation and follow linear features like hedgerows, to fly higher and avoid collisions with traffic after habitat loss.
These bat bridges have been implemented in the United Kingdom by organisations such as the Highways Agency, with support of the Bat Conservation Trust.
However, some studies have shown that many such bridges have proven ineffective or aren't used by bats, leading to debate about their scientific basis and cost-effectiveness
A team from the University of Leeds examined the effectiveness of bat bridges, gantries and underpasses. They found that one underpass, placed on a commuting route, was used by 96 per cent of bats, but few used the other underpasses and gantries, preferring routes which put them in the path of traffic
