| BIODIVERSITY - BATS Providing food for bats
Brown long- eared bats
are also known as ‘whispering bats’ due to their quiet echolocation.
Niamh McHugh is a postdoctoral ecologist in the Farmland Ecol- ogy team, and is inter- ested in how lowland agricultural habitats can be enhanced to benefi t farmland wildlife.
Bats account for almost a quarter of British mammalian species but populations have suffered severe declines. © Laurie Campbell
A new study is looking at the habitats that are attractive to foraging bat species in an attempt to reverse their decline. Niamh McHugh explains
W
hen we think about farmland wildlife, bats are hardly the first group of creatures that spring to mind. Bats, however, account for almost a quarter of British mammalian species and over the last century populations of a range of bat species have suffered severe declines. As a result they are protected by both national and international legislation. If the current trend of decline in these species continues, valuable ecosystem services they provide such as pest insect suppression may also be affected. As agriculture is the main land use within the UK, accounting for over 74% of the total area, there is a critical need to understand how farmland can be managed to benefit these species. In the UK the main drivers of bat population declines have been identified as the loss of roosting and foraging habitats through agricultural intensification. Bat roosts in Britain are protected under relevant legislation (Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, EU directives on migratory species), but foraging sites are unprotected making them susceptible to land use changes. There is huge potential for the farming community to contribute to bat conservation, but to maximise this potential, research is needed to identify features within the agricultural landscape that are attractive to foraging bats. Over the next six months, our farmland ecology team will be working with 15 farms across Hampshire
38 | GAMEWISE • SUMMER 2017
and Dorset to investigate how bat conservation may be aided by landowners by increasing invertebrate food resources through agri-environment schemes. Currently options for arable land do not specifically target mammals and there is no specific habitat designed to support the insects preferred by bats such as moths and flies. But some of the options that have been designed to increase invertebrate food resources for insect-eating farmland birds, such as corn bunting, tree sparrow and grey partridge, could be beneficial. To date, however, there have been few assessments of the potential benefits that schemes may offer to bat populations, and our research hopes to rectify this.
Hampshire and Dorset are strongholds for some of Britain’s rarest bats and 16 of Britain’s 17 species are found here, making it a perfect setting for this project. We plan to collect data on the habitat use by these species using automated acoustic bat detectors and in doing so ensure that we can provide advice that is beneficial to multiple bat species. By understanding how bats are using different agri- environment scheme options when foraging on farmland, we hope to contribute to the scheme’s development and promote positive changes in land management practices nationwide.
Top facts about bats
17 species of bat live in the UK and 16 of these species breed here.
The Alcathoe bat was only confi rmed as a UK resident species in 2010.
The common noct- ule bat can reach speeds of 50 kilo- metres per hour (31 mph) in level fl ight.
A pipistrelle bat can eat up to 3,000 insects in a night.
www.gwct.org.uk/research
© Laurie Campbell
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