Making nesting boxes for bats in Alfaz del Pi

Pre-fabs for bats?

This is just what they need, environmentalists would argue. Bats are an endangered species and Alfaz del Pi town hall has begun an awareness campaign to assist their survival with nesting-boxes.

These were recently installed in the area adjoining the Albir lighthouse in the Sierra Helada national park during an outing especially aimed at Alfaz’s youngest residents.

Park employees assisted by environmental volunteers demonstrated how easily the boxes could be made during the two-and-a-half-hour excursion.

Later, the children put what they had learned into practice by helping to make nesting boxes and were then shown how to position the boxes to attract potential occupants.  

They also found out more about the bats’ important role in the ecosystem. These unjustly feared small mammals are vital to the ecosystem by exterminating plagues of insects and are vital for pollination and seed dispersal, they were told.

The project was organised by the Alfaz’s Environment and Tourism departments with the cooperation of the Sierra Helada park.  The choice of the lighthouse zone was a complete success, councillor Vicente Soler said afterwards.