Tests on 387 bats from five species found that all were exposed to high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine insecticides, legacy pollutants that have long been banned
A greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis)
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Bats across Germany are riddled with residues of pesticides and persistent organic pollutants, according to the largest study to sample such exposure in a European bat population.
Christoph Müller at Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich and his colleagues collected 387 dead insect-eating bats from five species: serotine bats (Eptesicus serotinus), greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis), common noctules (Nyctalus noctule), common pipistrelles (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) and brown long-eared bats (Plecotus auratus). They tested their livers for 209 different compounds.
Of the 28 chemicals found, the most …