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More houses for bats

22nd Sep 2005

Greater Manchester Bat Group and British Waterways, with the support of The Waterways Trust, are embarking on a Daubentons Bat Recovery Programme.

Last August the Greater Manchester Bat Group carried out two visits to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal at Uppermill for the Bat Conservation Trust’s national bat monitoring programme.

Unfortunately only one Daubenton’s Bat was spotted feeding along the canal, although a number of common Pipistrelle bats were seen feeding in nearby trees. As the canal offers a wide range of food and provides good habitats for bats, their absence may be due to a lack of roosting sites.

Therefore, as part of the recovery programme, twenty new bat boxes are being installed along the canal for them to roost in.

Chris John, Ecologist for British Waterways, said: "This is a great contribution to bat conservation, we hope to see many more bats along the canal over the coming years."

The programme will be monitored by annual bat surveys, carried out by Greater Manchester bat Group. If successful, more bat boxes will be installed along the canal in coming years.

Daubenton's bats are fast agile flyers which leave their roosts to hunt at twilight. This is a small species, with a pinkish-brown face. The fur on their upper-parts is dark grey/brown and the under-parts are silvery grey. They have large furry feet, which they use to grab prey from the surface of water.

During the summer they roost in tree holes and attics, and in the winter they roost in caves, tunnels and cellars. The roosts need to be between 3-6 decrees Celsius and to be high in humidity. They hibernate from September to April, and females enter the hibernacula before the males.

Jim Taylor, secretary of the Greater Manchester Bat Group would like to thank The Waterways Trust and British Waterways. "The bat group look forward to undertaking the monitoring of the project and intend to undertake a number of public 'bat walks' in the coming year."

The group is always looking for new members willing to work towards bat conservation. Anyone interested can contact Jim Taylor on 01706 665554.

Last updated: 22/10/2008