Bats around the world are losing habitat to ever-expanding
cities. Urbanization is more complete and irreversible than
other encroachments, such as agriculture, and causes some of the
greatest local extinction rates. Not only is natural habitat
reduced to small, often tiny, remnant patches, but native plants
are replaced with often-invasive nonnatives. The result is an
ecosystem that becomes increasingly fragmented and homogenized
as you move from rural areas to the urban center. Some bat
species adapt and survive in an urbanized environment, roosting
in buildings, for instance, and foraging at streetlights.
Others, especially those with specialized behaviors, do not.
Tropical forests are not immune to urban sprawl. The great
Atlantic Forest that stretches along much of Brazil’s eastern
coast is a “biodiversity hot spot” that once covered 476,000
square miles (1.2 million square kilometers). Today, just 8
percent – about 38,600 square miles (99,900 square kilometers) –
remains intact. What once was forest is