(January 15, 2003) It is a rather unexpected development. Along with what will someday be 16,000 residents, droves of bats, green toads, swifts, sand martins and other endangered species have found a new home: Messestadt Riem.

Many of the species have taken up residence in the green areas and construction sites created in the transformation of Riem from a major airport into one of Munich's major residential and commercial district.

A coalition of environmental groups is now working to give the fauna everything they need to become permanent residents. Foreseen is the creation of a habitat for amphibians in the Riem Forest, of a range of bat roosts, and of nesting places on a new bird wall and on the bell tower of the community's new multi-confessional church.

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