The members from Sarajevo Karst&Speleology Center placed the first traffic sign of danger that warns drivers of bats in the Ponikva cave.
The sign has been placed at the entrance to the cave, through which the road passes, on a regional road that runs from Vareš , across the mountain of Zvijezda (The Star) to the valley of Krivaja.
It is the first such sign in the world. The cave Ponikva is the one out of five in the world through which the route runs along the entire length.
The warning sign is set due to the frequent death of bats due to the crash car accident. After setting public lighting in the cave, the number of new bat-deaths has increased since they do not know how to fly on the light.
Ponikva Cave is the host place to several types of the bat which are very rare in Bosnia and Herzegovina:
- Big and small Mediterranean horseshoe bat / Rhinolophus Euryale
- Small and Greater mouse-eared bat / Myotis Myotis
- Serotine bat, Big brown bat or Silky bat / Eptesicus Serotinus
- Mountain Long-eared Bat / Plecotus Macrobullaris
- Barbastelle, Western Barbastelle / Barbastella barbastellus