BATS Research & Training

🦫 While we talk about bats 100% of the time and trees 68% of the time, we do like to mix things up a little bit with a shout out every now and then. It's usually about people but, having seen this recent study, we want to shout out all the hard-working beavers in the UK who are restoring habitats and creating optimum conditions for bats (and other wildlife too)! 🌍 Jim recently caught Jack Hooker presenting his work at the EBRS 2024 in Tarragona, Spain. I met Jack for the first time, this year. Both Jim and Jack have been out looking for Bechstein’s and barbastelle bats, as part of a collaborative project, but had never met until the Summit. We're excited to see how this research project pans out! 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e327uht7 #bats #ecology #trees #wildlife #nature #ecologist #zoologist #bat #chiropterology #chiropterologist #uknature #ukwildlife #chiropterologists #beavers #rewilding

🦇 Ever seen one of these bat plaques on a tree? That will be the handiwork of someone like Jim, who has located a bat roost and wants to let others know. This is very important information for anyone planning to work on or fell the tree, or develop the area, so they are aware that they must check for bats. 🌳 This initiative, started by the Bat Conservation Trust, assigns a unique number to each recorded tree, which is then entered into a national database. 🎥 There's a bit of a technique to attaching them—watch the video to learn more! #bats #ecology #trees #wildlife #nature #ecologist #zoologist #bat #chiropterology #chiropterologist #uknature #ukwildlife #chiropterologists

🏚️ Something else us bat folk like to talk about a lot are PRAs, aka 'preliminary roost assessments'. These are where we go and inspect buildings to see if they're suitable for bats and whether they're already present. We'll give the building a rating depending on its suitability, which is based on various different features. Scroll to see the kind of thing we're looking for and what they mean for bats 👉 #bats #ecology #trees #wildlife #nature #ecologist #zoologist #bat #chiropterology #chiropterologist #uknature #ukwildlife #chiropterologists

🦇 Jim has been out with our latest bat licence trainees learning all about bats in trees (our favourite topic, as you may have guessed by now!). 🌳 We did ground level tree assessments, used endoscopes, and even managed to find some bats! ☀️ And the sun came out for us too. #bats #ecology #trees #wildlife #nature #ecologist #zoologist #bat #chiropterology #chiropterologist #uknature #ukwildlife #chiropterologists

Last weekend, Chloe and I presented the preliminary findings of our roost creation work at The Bat Conservation Trust conference. We have recorded multiple species using the features we created, including Bechstein’s bat in this one. The cameras have only been up for 6 months, I can’t wait to see what the next 6 months brings 🦇🌳😻 Shout out to Arbology Mark & Lee for helping to create this habitat. #ukbats #ecologylife #batsurvey

I had a blast at the The Bat Conservation Trust’s National Bat Conference. As well as catching up with old bat friends, it was humbling to see so many people doing great work. Thanks to BCT for hosting. See you next year. #ecologylife #ukbats Steven Roe Ian Davidson-Watts Charlie Drapala Samuel Olney Richard Crompton Steven Allen Paola Reason Daniel Hargreaves Steve Parker Annika Binet Cathy Jewson Greg Slack

🪵 Lifting bark is tricky. 🫣 It's fragile, which makes it extremely difficult to access without damaging it. It doesn’t persist long enough to develop smoothing, often seen inside bat roosts. If the opening is at the base, it won’t catch droppings. It also presents a H&S consideration for arborists - is the tree safe enough to climb? 🔭 I wanted to investigate whether a thermal scope could help. I was really pleased to be able to record both maternity groups and individual males with it during the day. Where dead trees have to be removed, perhaps this approach could be used to check it immediately before it is felled? #bats #ecology #trees #wildlife #nature #ecologist #zoologist #bat #chiropterology #chiropterologist #uknature #ukwildlife #chiropterologists

🌙 Thermal imaging scopes are a well-loved piece of kit for finding bat roosts at night, but Jim wanted to test whether they'd be useful in the day too. 🦇 The test was a success and lots of bat roosts have been found in not only lifting bark, but other roost features too. Have you tried using this technique to find bat roosts? We'd love to hear what your experience has been. 🙏 Also, a huge thank you to Thomas Jacks Limited Jacks for lending us the kit we needed to test our hypothesis! #bats #ecology #trees #wildlife #nature #ecologist #zoologist #bat #chiropterology #chiropterologist #uknature #ukwildlife #chiropterologists

🦇Thermal imaging scopes are extremely useful for bat surveying as it gives us the ability to find bats roosting in the day (if they're under something thin, such as lifting bark), without the need for an external light source. So we can leave the infrared lights at home! 📹 Once we've located the bats, we can get ready for them to emerge later on in the day. Wait until the end of the video to see what we managed to record! #bats #ecology #trees #wildlife #nature #ecologist #zoologist #bat #chiropterology #chiropterologist #uknature #ukwildlife #chiropterologists

🪵 We've been chatting about lifting bark quite a bit recently, so we thought we'd deep dive into this potential roost feature this week. 🦇 Although temporary, lifting bark is a really important feature for numerous bat species - barbastelle, Natterer’s, Leisler’s, noctule, pipistrelle (common/soprano/Nathusius’) and brown long-eared bats - and serves as a suitable hibernation and maternity roost. 🌳 For lifting bark to develop; however, the tree must be undergoing degradation as a result of damage to the cambium, which allows fungi and invertebrates to begin feeding on the tree. Bad news for the tree, great news for everyone else. #bats #ecology #trees #wildlife #nature #ecologist #zoologist #bat #chiropterology #chiropterologist #uknature #ukwildlife #chiropterologists