Checking the ring of the bat
Releasing the bat, it's a quick one!
Box Quarry, Wiltshire
Bat projects – survey and monitoring
After contacting the local Wiltshire bat group for possible volunteering exercises to help further an interest in survey techniques for bats I was passed onto Fiona Matthews who kindly accepted my assistance on a typical survey night locally at Quarry Hill near Box.
I met the group at 6pm (6 of us in total) Fiona Matthews (Biologist) and Simeon Smith (a self taught expert operating in the field of surveying and consultancy) lead the group of various enthusiasts into the woods. With me was another ‘first timer’ called Catherine, she was from the Whale and Dolphin society in Chippenham and was there to further her enjoyment of Bats. One other person, Colin (?) was gaining more ‘hands-on’ experience to qualify as an experienced bat-handler.
After taking the equipment through to the woods we set up the examining table, and erected a mist net in the immediate area outside one of the quarry entrances to catch
bats exiting the cave.
Within the quarry itself a ‘Harp net’ was set up, a device with staggered nylon wire stretched across a vertical metal frame with a cloth bucket trap at the base to catch bats.
Within half an hour of setting up we had our first specimen from the harp net, a Natterers bat Mytois nattereri defined by a row of bristles along the edge of the tail membrane and the bats ‘nattering’ call.
The procedure tonight was to ring the bats, measure the arm length, weight, identify sex and level of maturity and also to take mucus, faeces and blood samples for further lab analysis.
As the night progressed we had a steady stream of bats to ‘process’ from a range of species, most frequent and accounting for around 80% of the bats was the Natterers.
Other included the Daubentons, Whiskered, Brandts and a type of Pipistrelle.
The experts were using key features of the bat to help identify the species such as the tragus of the ear (the front flap of skin) and also examing tooth patterns.
On release the bats were set free into a wooded path area where a meter was set up to record the echo call as the bat navigated through the trees.
I was actively involved with recording the details and assisted in releasing two bats plus taking sound recordings.
Unfortunately rained stopped play and we had to dismantle the nets and pack up the equipment at around 1:30am.
It was a fantastic opportunity to be involved with friendly group doing important research in one of the best regions to view bats, especially as initially I thought a bat survey would consist of just counting the bats flying from a roost!
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