Bat your eyes on these beauties!

My fellow conservationists and I travelled to Tophill Low Nature Reserve (@tophilllow), and spent the morning travelling through the woodland surveying the local bats with East Yorkshire Bat Group (@EYBG1).

Soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellus 

    pygmaeus) found at Tophill.

A little information on Tophill Low; its an active water treatment site, established in 1959 and officially opened as a nature reserve in 1993. It’s a 300-acre site bordering the River Hull. Surprisingly enough not much is left to nature, it’s under constant management; if you want to keep up to date with everything they do give their blog a read!

Getting acquainted with Geoff and his team from EYBG was a pleasure, they talked about what they do for bats all over the country, from professional research to household advice. Their surveys allow for the protection of bats, in the case of building development within the area.


During the walk, a record of all the bats seen was taken, this helps us increase our knowledge and understanding of bats ecology. We checked a total of 11 bat boxes that morning and found a total of 12 bats, 8 of them were male and 4 of them female. Some of the bat boxes had fresh droppings in, suggesting that it had been used recently. Unfortunately, I only saw one species Soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus).

Getting ready to fly! Geoff is showing us them shivering
to warm themselves up so they can fly away.

The bats that were removed out of the bat boxes were cold and dormant, and it took them some time to warm up and get ready to fly, if you handled them for too long off they flew!

Interesting fact for you... a pip weights 5g when fully grown... that is the same weight as a 20p coin.

What’s the point in bat conservation?

Apart from them being really cute and cuddly, why do we need to protect them? Because the countryside and Wildlife Act 1981 says so? Well yes obviously... but why?

This is a male and female Pip; they
were found in the same box.

Bats play a crucial role in their environment, as they are an indicator species. Changes within the bat populations could be an indicator of biodiversity change. They are a natural form of pest control for insects and pollinate several plant species.

In 2005 Battersby stated that there had been significant declines within European countries bat populations, including Britain, this being due to a reduction within the diversity of insects as a consequence of the loss of hedgerows, and over grazed agricultural pastures. However now according to the IUCN red list they are listed as being a 'least concern' with a stable population. 

One of the EYBG volunteers
climbing the ladder
to demonstrate. 

Stebbings stated that with large scale management of the landscape over time the population of bats can be restored to their full glory, by managing the landscape it enables us to create shelter and optimal insects for the bats to feast on all night long (stopping them from feasting on us!). Bats need roosts near habitats in which they can forage, such as Tophill low, with woodland and water, with safe passageways such as 

hedgerows to shelter them from predators.

How can you get involved? 

You can sign up to EYBG for a small fee, information for this can be found on their blog, or you can donate a bat box which you can build at home, read a simple guide on how to here!

If you want to go and survey bats please don’t go out on your own, please set something up with EYBG! You’ll be doing plenty of walking with them, and some ladder climbing, so come prepared, (comfy walking shoes, warm clothing) read more information here!

Or if you just fancy a day out to enjoy the scenery and to see what sort of cool things they get up to at Tophill Low you can visit them for the day between 9am to 6pm for a small entrance fee (£3.50 per adult).

(Google Maps, 2018)

Thanks for reading!

C.



P.S. here are some more photos from the day!