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Bats thriving at Threave as first Bat Reserve opens
Anne Youngman, Scottish Bat Officer shows us round the first bat reserve in the UK
On Thursday 26th August the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) opened the first ever Bat reserve!!! Threave has at least 7 out of the 9 bat species that occur in Scotland and has to be one of the most beautiful places in Scotland to see bats. I was there at the launch and it was brilliantly batty. NTS have a “bat mobile”, a trailer which opens up into a portable bat display, complete with buttons to press, funky bat detector sounds and other night time noises. Everyone, adults and children enjoyed listening to the different sounds for each bat species.
The rangers took us around a “bat trail” showing us by day the best places to see and hear bats at night. In the near future visitors to Threave gardens will be able to borrow a bat detector and walk the routes themselves at dusk. There are two bat trails to explore.
Threave will also be used as a centre for bat studies. So any students who have an idea for a bat project – wing your way to Threave, it’s the place to hang out.
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Fruit bats head west!
Helpline Officer Harriet Henley discusses how BCT’s Bat Helpline in the UK was involved in an exciting discovery in the world of Egyptian fruit bats…
As well as reassuring people who are nervous about bats, and giving members of the public and professional’s information and advice, working on the Bat Helpline also gives us a great opportunity to hear first hand people’s joy upon finding out that they share their home with these amazing creatures. In some cases we even get the privilege of being privy to some really interesting discoveries. Without a doubt, my favourite of these instances came about from an email sent to us in November last year, which ended up making a significant contribution to international fruit bat research!
It all began when I received an email from Iain, a British Citizen living in Fethiye, Turkey. He had managed to take a photo of a bat, which he had been aware of roosting in the roof of his apartment for a number of years, but that he had never before seen in the daylight. He wondered if we might be able to identify it for him.
Well, at BCT we love this kind of enquiry! The recipient of the photograph forwards it around to all staff with a caption along the lines of “prizes for the first correct identification of this bat!” and is then bombarded with replies containing peoples’ various suggestions. In this case, the responses from the BCT staff were unanimous; Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus).
I emailed Iain with the verdict and explained that although we don’t generally have “batty” contacts outside of the UK, we did know of one researcher from the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Bogazici University in Istanbul, who he may wish to contact for further information.
Now this is where things got interesting… on being contacted by Iain, our Turkish researcher contact forwarded the information to his colleagues in the Czech Republic, with whom he was studying Rousettus bats. Their response was one of extreme excitement…
“Great! It is really Rousettus! For me personally and the international team associated with the research project on the current status and history of the species in the Mediterranean and Middle East (the only resident population of fruit bats beyond limits of tropes) this is indeed big news, refining the range of the species in an essential way.”
A bit of background information is I think required at this point…
The species has a wide, but patchy distribution, ranging across Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, and in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Turkey and Cyprus. Up until this point in the proceedings, the westernmost record of this species in Turkey (which corresponds to the most northwest margin of the global distribution of the Egyptian fruit bat) was Antalya. Fethiye is a good 200 km west of Antalya, which means…(wait for it!)…
Iain’s record of Egyptian fruit bats roosting in Fethiye represents BY FAR the most western marginal point of distribution of the species discovered to date!! And what’s more, his record spans several years indicating that this is an established roost!
Big news in the fruit bat world, and a great discovery to come via the BCT office!
As the Bat Helpline finished playing its part in the story arrangements were being made for one of the Rousettus research team to actually visit Fethiye to try and monitor the roost and determine whether it could be a satellite roost for a much larger colony that may be roosting nearby, so far undetected.
Discoveries of international importance only come about every once in a while on the Bat Helpline, but everyday the we have the fantastic opportunity to be part of new discoveries closer to home. It may be guiding a member of the public as they rescue a bat for the first time, or converting someone into a bat-lover and opening their eyes to the wonderful world of bats, or speaking to a householder who has discovered a bat roost in their home.
I hope this tale of far away bats has brought a smile to your face, as reliving the episode has to mine.
Long live bats, mega and micro!!
Harriet Henley
Helpline Officer
The Batcave
Rousettus Facts:
• Egyptian fruit bats usually roost in caves, unlike other tree-dwelling fruit bats.
• They roost in numbers from 2 or 3 to 2,000 individuals!
• Bats belonging to the genus Rousettus are the only fruit bats that use echolocation, and theirs is the only echolocation audible to human ears.
If you need help with a bat or advice about bats and their roosts, please call the BCT Helpline on 0845 1300 228.
Photo: Egyptian fruit bat. Courtesy of Iain McCulloch
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Scottish Easter surprise!
Leisler's bat. Photo courtesy of Hugh Clark
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Anne Youngman – BCT’s Scottish Bat Officer (and first time blogger!) shares a rare batty discovery in the North East of Scotland
I just had the MOST exciting Easter ever. No Easter bunnies for me but bats instead. Not just any old bat, I’ve just seen my first ever Leisler’s bat. For anyone who can’t quite understand my excitement hang in there and I’ll explain……
Leisler’s bats are pretty rare in Britain, they can be found in the midlands and the south of England and if you look VERY HARD and are VERY LUCKY you might find some in Dumfries and Galloway (you’d then throw a party with all your batty friends to celebrate). This bat was found near Nairn on the North East coast of Scotland. Nairn is a lovely place for a seaside holiday but its hundreds of miles away from what bat people think of as “Leisler’s territory”.
The bat was found on someone’s settee. Luckily the white settee cover made it obvious; otherwise the brown bat on the brown settee might have been a flat brown ex-bat on a brown settee.
More good luck - the lady who found it had previous experience of bats and knew that this was too big to be a pipistrelle (the bat you are most likely to find in your house). She thought it was a noctule bat.
Noctules are big, sleek, gingery bats. They are closely related to Leisler’s. Finding a Noctule that far north would also be highly unusual and guaranteed to get bat workers in a flap of excitement.
She had the presence of mind to contact a local bat person to ask if anyone wanted to see the bat before it was released. By a process of “jungle drums” (well email actually) the message was relayed to bat worker Mick Canham who lives near Nairn and Mick went out to see the bat. He got a brilliant surprise...
He found a big bat, but instead of a big sleek bat this one looked rather windswept and slightly straggly. It was not a noctule but something even more amazing, it was a Leisler’s!
It’s a female, in good health and with a hearty appetite. (Mick has been feeding her up with mealworms which she munches with great gusto and obvious relish)
What it was doing in Nairn is a complete mystery. We have speculated (wildly) on what the explanation might be and come up with some batty theories:
1. Theory 1 - The bat “hitched” a lift from Ireland or South West Scotland at some time in the past and has been hanging out locally since. It was hibernating in the house and woke up after a change in the weather, got itself into the living space of the house, sat down (perhaps to watch TV?) and was found on the settee.
2. Theory 2 - There is a very small population living somewhere near Nairn (this seems very unlikely but a Swedish bat worker reported hearing Leisler’s bats with a bat detector near Aberdeen years ago)
3. Theory 3 - Something else equally unlikely occurred - If only the bat could tell us!
So what happens next in this batty story ……?
The bat will be released back to the wild once she has a good weight, good weather and has shown she can fly strongly. In the meantime she seems to be enjoying her winter holiday in Nairn, munching on mealworms and generally taking life easy.
Mick will be roaming around the Nairn countryside with a bat detector stuck to his ear in the hope of finding a local colony that has been undiscovered until now.
And for me – I’ve learned that where ever bats are concerned – expect the unexpected.
Anne Youngman
Old Bat
The Attic
Scottish churches house.
About the Scottish Bat Project
The Scottish Bat Project started in April 2003 and aims to: promote greater awareness of bats in Scotland; enable more people in Scotland to appreciate and enjoy bats and get involved in bat conservation; develop the network and activities of Scottish Bat Groups and run a number of conservation projects.
About Leisler’s bat
To find about more about the Leisler’s bat and other UK bat species visit the BCT website www.bats.org.uk/pages/uk_bat_species.html
What to do if you find a bat in your house?
A bat flying in a room is looking for a way out!
The Bat Conservation Trust runs the national Bat Helpline to information to the public about bats. If you need help, call the Bat Helpline - 0845 1300 228
Bats have a very sophisticated system for finding their way around in the dark, but despite this, some do end up getting trapped inside buildings. This happens most often between mid-July and mid-August when baby bats are learning to fly, and they are inexperienced in using their newly developed echolocation skills.
This means that when they are finding their way back to the roost after hunting they might crawl through the wrong gap or through an open window, especially if this window is beneath the roost entrance; they will then find themselves inside the house rather than in the roof.
Bats are very small and need only a very small space in order to gain access, so sometimes it can be very hard to tell how a bat got in.
The best course of action is to close the door to the room, and to open the windows to the outside as widely as possible, dim the lights and give the bat the chance to find its own way out.
Bats navigate by sending out high-pitched sounds and listening for the echoes so the bat should soon detect any opening that leads out of the room. If it does not find its way out it will roost somewhere in the room when it becomes light, and will appear again the following evening at dusk.
If you wish to search the room to ensure the bat has gone, the best places to look are in the folds of curtains and behind picture frames and other places that are high up and where the bat can roost out of the light. However, bats have been found hanging from the tassles at the bottom of an arm chair, so do check at a lower level as well.
NEVER try to catch a flying bat - you are likely to injure it severely
Sometimes young bats, which are inexperienced flyers, will become exhausted before finding the way out. They may try to land on a wall or curtains, or they may crash land on furniture or the floor. In this case, you should contain the bat, and then release it in the evening.
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No hibernating for the Bat Helpline
Helpline Officer Harriet Henley shares her insights into her first winter on the BCT Bat Helpline…
Over the winter months I have noticed that there is one question that I hear more than any other when people ask me about my job… What do you do in the winter while all the bats are hibernating?
Well, I’m glad you asked!
This winter was my first as a member of the Bat Helpline team, and as the long summer months filled with endless phone calls about grounded bats, baby bats, catted bats and a plethora of other batty issues drew to a close, I admit that I began to look forward to autumn when the phone would inevitably stop ringing and things on the Bat Helpline would calm down. Voicing this feeling to my longer-serving colleagues, I was met with knowing smiles. Little did I know the hard work was only just beginning...
For starters, I am still waiting for the phone to stop ringing! Granted the sheer volume of calls is significantly smaller during the winter, but so is the Bat Helpline team.
Once the summer draws to a close and we say goodbye to the seasonal staff, we begin to readjust to a smaller team and attack the inevitable pile of advice letters that need writing.
As well as this, we begin to notice the subjects of phone calls change with the weather. People want loft insulation installed before Christmas, cluster flies set about their annual rampage, and calls start to come in from people discovering bats hibernating in some very odd places; a woodpile, an umbrella, a box of Christmas decorations!
There are hoards of planning and development queries, lots of people looking for consultants, and plenty of churches to give bat-related advice to.
And then there is the phone call that all Helpliner’s dread; “I’ve just been stripping a roof and have found bats hibernating under the tiles…” Those ones are a constant throughout the winter, and require a calm head, good advice, and a few urgent phone calls to local bat workers!
But after all that, the letters get written, the visits get organised and suddenly it’s March and we’re keenly awaiting the arrival of the new seasonal Bat Helpline staff, breath baited in anticipation of another busy summer saving bats.
Helpline Highlight:
One of the best experiences we've had on the Bat Helpline this year has been our recent visit to Essex to see bat workers Roger and Sylvia Jiggins. Roger and Sylvia took us around three churches and three barns to give us a better idea of the structure of these buildings, and how they can be used by bats. The day was a huge success, a good time was had by all and we were able to learn a great deal about bat roosts in these buildings, which will be an immense help when writing advice letters for these types of visits in the future.
Bat Helpline stats:
• The BCT Bat Helpline takes an average of 10,000 calls per year
• The busiest day of 2010 so far has been the 26th January, when 41 calls were taken
• Of calls taken in 2010 the most frequently raised issue has been bats, planning and development
• Since 1 January 2010, the Bat Helpline has organised 275 roost visits for members of the public who require advice about a roost or are carrying out building work or pest control that may affect a roost
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On trial for bat crimes
This month has seen two important bat crime cases come to court following the hard work of police wildlife crime officers in opposite corners of England and Wales. Dr Kate Barlow, Investigations Officer here at the Bat Conservation Trust explains how she has been involved.
The first case saw Mr. Ayob Bhailok, a solicitor from Preston in Lancashire, found guilty of two charges of destruction of bat roosts in Prestatyn Magistrates Court, North Wales. He was given a 6 month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £2000 costs. The verdict was delivered at the end of the two day trial but was the culmination of a complex investigation carried out by North Wales Police and particularly by wildlife crime officer Sgt Rob Taylor. I got involved to help explain to the court the impact these crimes had on bat populations.
Mr. Bhailok was working as a consultant for Freemont (Denbigh) Ltd who wanted to develop the old North Wales hospital site, which contains a number of Grade II listed buildings. Denbighshire County Council granted outline planning permission for the site in 2006 which included a requirement for bat surveys to be completed. The initial bat survey was carried out and identified a number of bat roosts in the complex of buildings with roosts of one of Britain’s rarest bats the lesser horseshoe bat and brown long-eared bats in the former Bryn Golau ward of the hospital. Then in 2008 the Bryn Golau ward building was demolished. Despite the bat survey report stating that the building was home to a possible maternity roost site for lesser horseshoe bats and that Freemont (Denbigh) Ltd would need to obtain a license from the Welsh Assembly Government before any buildings containing bat roosts could be demolished. The licence was never obtained.
Sgt Rob Taylor discovered a partly demolished building, and bats had to be rescued and relocate to another building with help from a local batworker. Work on the development at North Wales Hospital stopped last November when the bat offence was detected and no work has been able to go ahead on the site since.
As part of the investigation, Sgt Rob Taylor asked me to provide a statement explaining the impact of the destruction of the roosts on the populations of the two species involved. We have been providing these statements for cases that reach the courts in recent months and they give background information on the bat species and populations involved to the Magistrates, who cannot be expected to be bat experts.
After a long investigation by Sgt Rob Taylor, Mr. Bhailok was charged with destruction of the two roosts in the Bryn Golau ward building. He denied the charges, arguing that he had passed on planning issues at the site to a number of consultants to sort out. Following the trial, District Judge Andrew Shaw said that Mr. Bhailok was responsible for giving the go ahead for demolition works to start on the Byrn Golau building, and found him guilty of the charges.
A week later Essex police called to let me know of another bat prosecution. Two companies, Hills Construction and North East Demolition were found guilty of destruction of a bat roost at Colchester Magistrates court last week and fined £2000 and £1500 respectively. A small barn was identified to have a brown long-eared bat roost in it during a bat survey of 2006 and the report from the survey recommended that a licence would be required. The surveyor then noticed in 2008 that the barn had been demolished and after checking found out no licence had been obtained. He reported it to Essex police who investigated and charged the two companies, the first were developing the barn and the second carried out the actual demolition.
With more bat crime cases reaching court it shows that bat crime is being taken seriously and will hopefully prevent crimes happening in the future.
What is bat crime?
Bats suffer persecution (harassment and cruel treatment) for various reasons. The persecution may be deliberate or reckless (e.g. continuing with roofing work even though bats have been uncovered) or may be due to a lack of awareness of bats and the places they live in (e.g. entombing bats in walls while re-pointing stonework.
Some of the problems bats may encounter include injury or death, loss of roosts or disturbance of bats for example when they are feeding young. Bats are especially vulnerable while females are pregnant or looking after young bats, and both males and females are vulnerable during winter hibernation.
Why are bats a wildlife crime priority?
Numbers of British bats have declined rapidly over the last few decades; as a result all bats and their roosts are now protected across the UK. Without protection this decline would continue. Wildlife crimes affecting bats have devastating consequences for bat populations either directly through killing of bats, or indirectly by removing essential roosts used by the bats. The law is there to protect bats and roosts but NOT to stop anything ever happening at a roost. It is designed so that bats must be taken into account when work needs to be carried out, and that any work that is done is completed in a way that causes the least disturbance to the bats, reduces the chance of injury and safeguards the availability of roosts.
What can I do if I suspect a bat crime?
If you suspect a bat crime, please report it.
DO:
Making notes (mental or written) at a scene, remember:
What is happening?
Who is involved?
Where – note the location precisely
When – note date and time.
Take photos (with camera, video or mobile phone) if you think it is likely that evidence may be removed, and only if it is safe to do so
Contact your local police station immediately. Explain that you think a wildlife crime is being committed and mention ‘Operation Bat’. This is the standard operating procedure for police dealing with bat-related crimes. Ensure you get an incident number from the police.
Let us know by emailing investigations@bats.org.uk or completing the incident report form on our website . You can also report incidents directly to us in this way, or contact the Helpline 0845 1300228.
DO NOT:
- Directly approach suspects, leave that to the police
- Pick up any bats at a site. Contact the Bat Conservation Trust for further advice on what to do with grounded, injured or dead bats either by calling the Helpline 0845 1300228 or from our website:
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