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Baby Bats Take Bite Out Of Interstate 65 Project

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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) -- Baby bats have brought one element of the ongoing widening of Interstate 65 to a halt.

The Bowling Green Daily News reported the presence of northern long-eared bat pups meant workers widening Interstate 65 between Bowling Green and Elizabethtown won't be able to clear trees from the right of way for the project until August.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website, the bat was listed as a threatened species in April.

Lee Andrews, a state supervisor for the wildlife agency, said removing trees serving as habitat for the northern long-eared bat was allowed for transportation projects - but not in June or July, when the pups were actually in trees.

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spokesman Chris Jessie said the tree-cutting postponement was not expected to delay the road work. 

(Copyright 2015 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)