Conservation & Ecology
Bats and their protection To the Bechstein’s bat (Myotis bechsteinii)
Bats are truly fascinating animals – the only true flying mammal. There are over 1,100 species of bats in the world, and more are still being discovered. Bats account for more than a quarter of mammal species in the UK and around 20% of all mammal species worldwide
THERE are more than 1,100 bat species in the world, so we can’t talk about all of them here! Bats can be as large as a small dog or as
small as a bee. The largest bats are the flying foxes with wingspans of up to 2 metres and a body weights of up to 1.5 kilograms. At the other end of the scale is the bumblebee bat, weighing only 2 grams - the world’s smallest mammal! Did you know that bats are more closely related to humans than they are to mice? Bats in the UK eat only insects, but bats elsewhere also dine on frogs, fruit, other bats, nectar from flowers, blood, pollen and fish. Some bats use echolocation to navigate and hunt, whilst others rely on smell and vision to find food.
Classifying bats: a complex story “
Exactly where bats might be found depends on the species of bat, the time of year and what they’re doing - looking after their babies, hunting or hibernating, for example
106 I PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015
Traditionally, bats are divided into two major groups: Megachiroptera or megabats (sometimes called fruit bats or flying foxes) and Microchiroptera or microbats. These names are already a bit misleading, because some ‘megabats’ are small and some ‘microbats’ are big! Families of bats were classified as microbats if they used ‘true’ echolocation (with calls produced from their larynx or voice box) to navigate or hunt, other families were classified as megabats; it was thought that microbats evolved to echolocate whilst megabats did not. But recent research suggests a more
complex picture. Studies of genetics have identified different relationships between some families of bats. For example, the horseshoe bat family (that are insect eating and tend to be small bats) are genetically more closely related to the families of fruit bats, which we previously called megabats, than they are to those families we called microbats. The subdivision of bats into Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera is, therefore, no longer appropriate. There are two alternative proposals for the new groupings of families of bats:
At home
The place a bat lives is called a roost - not a nest! Bats need different roosting conditions at different times of the year and they will often move around to find a roost that meets their needs. In summer, female bats form maternity roosts whilst, in winter, bats use hibernation roosts. Most bats in the UK evolved to live in trees and caves, but many have now adapted to roost in buildings, including barns, houses, tunnels and bridges. This is due to habitat loss removing natural roosting opportunities. Some of the UK’s older churches have seen generations of bats return faithfully to the same roost year after year. You can enjoy watching bats in their homes
from the comfort of yours via internet bat cams. Examples are two that have been set up in Devon and Denbigshire by the Bat Conservation Trust:
- Devon Bat Project has a link to see greater horseshoe bats in Devon
bat cave!
Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera, and Vespertilioniformes and Pteropodiformes; currently, researchers do not all agree which is correct and both sets of names are used. Some scientists now also believe that
echolocation was used by a common ancestor of all the bats that exist in the world today. Echolocation might have then been lost in ‘megabats’, only to re-evolve in some of these species - including greater horseshoe bats and lesser horseshoe bats, which live in the UK.
Where Do Bats Live?
Bats live in different environments across the UK. Exactly where they might be found depends on the species of bat, the time of year and what they’re doing - looking after their babies, hunting or hibernating, for example. To survive, bats need water and insects to
eat, places to hunt insects (called foraging habitats), places to hibernate, sleep and raise their babies (roosts) and safe routes between these different locations (commuting habitats).
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156