The food base of many species, including the target species of the Life Bats & Birds project, consists of insects. Due to the use of pesticides and a landscape that becomes more monotone, the number of insect species as well as individuals has decreased significantly. The disappearance of different habitat types causes particularly the specialised species to disappear, leaving only those species that do not have special habitat requirements. The use of pesticides causes the number of insects to shrink, as it also affects the less demanding species. Moreover, pesticides can not only affect insects directly, but also harm the animals that eat insects contaminated with pesticides, as many of the substances can accumulate in the animals’ bodies. The best-known example of the consequences of such accumulation of pollutants is probably the consequences of the use of DDT until the 1970s. The DDT accumulated in the bodies of birds of prey, which were no longer able to lay eggs whose shells were stable enough to be hatched.
Diet
