Habitat alteration was an ancient tradition in Australia, in the form of burning by Aboriginal people, but in recent decades land clearance has become a more drastic and mechanized trend, with less-reversible results, especially in Queensland. Vast areas of old forest have been cut, or chained down with bulldozers, to make way for cattle ranching and urban sprawl. People have planted orchards, established urban parks, landscaped their yards with blossoming trees, and created other unintended enticements amid the cities and suburbs. “So bats have decided that, as their native habitat is
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