A Wake County maintenance crew made an unusual discovery after lifting a manhole cover: a large colony of bats living inside an underground stormwater system.
Wildlife officials say the colony is one of the largest known roosts of this bat species in the area, and a sign of how natural bat habitats are shrinking across North Carolina.
Olivia Munzer, a bat biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, has been studying bats for nearly 20 years. She says it’s not surprising that bats are turning up in new places in recent years…