Nature checking out a new niche?

[YankeyMCC]

I found this via slashdot: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/27/129238&from=rss

(snip)
Overall, he says, the test went well, but there were several unexpected encounters with wildlife. More than a dozen insect egg colonies had been laid on the tether, and in the first few days of the test, curious bats flew around the balloons, apparently attracted by the sound made by the tether's vibrations. Late in the test, swallows were also seen swooping down on the balloons, possibly to sip the morning dew on their surfaces.
(snip)

refereed to article: http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn10161-even-on-the-ground-space-elevators-may-have-uses.html


Imagine a world where humans get enough of our act together to survive, decide the elevator method is a good one and build it and it's in operation for many years. This would be a large structure slashing up through the biosphere like no other - I wonder what adaptations wildlife might make to exploit this structure regardless what we want. Or maybe we'll just figure a way to sterilize it - maybe that would be safer but somehow disappointing if only to my imagination.