Soviet-era compact television sets, known for bad reception and low picture quality, are finally popular — as homes for bats.
A group of disabled workers in the south-eastern Czech Republic produces bat boxes from the Rubin TV sets’ sturdy plywood casing, which is hard to break and easily resists bad weather.
”The TVs had two outstanding features: an extremely bad picture and extremely solid plywood casing,” said Mojmir Vlasin, an environmentalist whose company disassembles old TV sets.
Vlasin said about 50 boxes made of the TV sets that dominated Czechoslovakia’s market in the 1980s have been placed in the woods near the city of Brno, 200km south-east of Prague.
Each box accommodates up to several dozen bats, depending on their size, Vlasin said.
Bats use the boxes in the summer. In winter months, they hibernate in underground shelters. — Sapa-AP