The first guests will be people, who are not indifferent toward the fate of horseshoe bats, or just interested in learning about the castle seen with the bat’s eyes. With the local Matrix, i.e. virtual reality created with modern technology called oculus (see the Horseshoes have good taste! article).
Soon, the bats themselves will arrive, too. They live in the parts of the castle unused by people. The LIFE Podkowic+ team prepared some improvements for the little guests. In the huge space under the roof, some tiny spots were chosen, where the microhabitat improvements would benefit the bats most. Earlier experience shown that such corrections work very well in practice.
In the Wiśnicz Castle the team installed some shelters, that prevent access of light, predators, and draughts. They also expand the range of temperatures available for bats to choose where they want to sit in given weather condition.
Some earlier observations shown, that lesser horseshoes are whimsical in choice of the surface on which to hang. Sometimes they apparently prefer stones, sometimes it’s wood. To allow more flexibility, some tiles, covered by rough surface plaster were mounted inside the otherwise wooden shelter.
For bat safety, the openings through which bat fly, were made marten-proof with special shelf, that flips when the animal jumps on it. Counting frames were installed to help understand how bats use the inner space of the site.
