Bats in Beds July 2014 Volume 105 in Beds July 2014 Volume 105 Newsletter of the Bedfordshire Bat Group Website . E mail: [email protected] Facebook – The Luton Project, The

Bats in Beds July 2014 Volume 105

Newsletter of the Bedfordshire Bat Group Website www.bedsbatgroup.org.uk. E mail: [email protected] Facebook – The Luton Project, The Bedfordshire Bat Group. Blog http://bedfordshirebatgroup.blogspot.com/

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This is the first Leisler’s Bat ever to be caught in Bedfordshire. Photo by Bob Cornes

Editor’s Bit 2

New subscription info 3

The first Leisler’s caught in Beds 4

Nathusius Project 5-6

More on Bat’s tongues 7

Isle of Wight Bat Hospital 8-9

Tiddenfoot Water Park 10

NBMP course 13

Walks talks and stalls 14

Brilliant Bat Photos 15

Flight muscles 16

Why vesper bats are so diverse 17

Confiscation of assets 18

Big Brown Bat 19

Social Call – diary of events 20 Bat Boxes at Harrold Odell 11

AGM 12

Editor’s Bit

Bats in Beds The newsletter of the Bedfordshire Bat Group July 2014 Vol 105

Blimey, this quarter has been crazy.

Every time I thought I had a cover

decided, or the articles to include

sorted, something else remarkable

turned up.

I’ve had to hold back quite a lot from

this edition and have had to use a

shoehorn to get everything in; as it is

I have left out all mention of regular

surveys and June events until next

time. (If you can’t wait, check out the

blog on the website.)

The Nathusius project has been a

major preoccupation (see page 5).

But we have also been busy on a new

bat box project (see page 11) as well

as the regular ones.

Aidan and Colin ran a BCT National

Bat Monitoring Project training

session and Jude and Viv have been

doing talks (see pages 13 and 14).

We were out almost every night in

May, and I must admit I heaved a

sigh of relief when we stopped

trapping in early June because of the

risk of catching bats in the late stage

of pregnancy. The combination of

lure and harp trap has got us a lot of

new records, including the Leisler’s

(Page 4) (she said casually).

What has also been good is just how

many of you have ventured out so

far. Regular surveys have also been

well attended to date.

By the time you read this, it will be

time to get into a faster pace again.

We would not expect anyone to get

to everything, but as they say at

Tesco, “Every little helps”.

New members

The following have joined the bat

group since the April issue of the

newsletter was printed. Those in

bold have already been out with us

Bob Hook (Marston Moretaine),

Claire Dovey (Hitchin), Rebecca

Langton (Baldock), Yan-Yee and

Julia Lau , Lisa and Fallon Wheeler

(Putnoe), Becky Shaw (Flitwick),

Asia (Joanna) and Ralph Davies

(Sandy) (10)

Brave souls who have been out with us between April 1st and June 3rd: Dick and Geraldine Hogg, Jude

Hirstwood, Bob Cornes, Danny

Fellman, Aidan Mathews, Martin

Reed, Angie Cornwell, Viv Heys,

Malcolm Harrison, Alex Cole, Ellie

Beech, Soggy Sabiniarz, Sarah

Hopkins, Yan-Yee and Julia Lau,

Bill Lesley, Alex and ... Champkin,

Tony Aldhous, Jonathan Durward,

Nicky Monsey, Gwen Hitchcock,

John Mark Best, John Day, Dave

Odell, Claire Dovey, Hedj Dollman,

Molly Breed Kemp, Kel Robinson,

Colin Edwards, Tim Robson, Lisa

Mason Phil Gould, Becky ..... Julia

Massey, Peter Heath, Maddy Ryan

(40)

Congratulations To Chantelle

Warriner née Kerr

who got married on

May 30th to John

Wakely, bat group

member and bat

friendly vet, who has

just retired and is

having a great time.

He says he hopes to

find time to come out to some events

now. Bill and Leslie Champkin for

becoming grandparents and to their

son Alex for becoming a dad. To Bill

Champkin who has fallen in love

with his new EM3 bat detector and is

gathering new records at a startling

pace. To Joan Childs, a founder

member of the bat group, who has

started a new job at Wicken Fen.

The BRCC (Bedfordshire Rural

Communities Charity) is putting

together a very large bid to highlight

the Greensand Ridge. They are

calling the project “The Secret of the

Sands” and held a meeting for

possible stakeholders, including the

BNHS, the RSPB and Mid Beds

Council. Most of the bats we find are

distributed along the Greensand

Ridge as that is where most of the

woodland is situated, so Bob went

along to represent the bat group and

was impressed by the scope of the

project.

We have written a letter of support

to go with the revised bid which has

now been submitted to the National

Lottery, and may become a “partner

group” when we have a clearer idea

of what would be expected of us. We

felt we could not do this yet as it was

not clear what would be expected

from us.)

We wish them all the best with their

application to the National Lottery.

If reading this issue makes you think

about coming out with us, please feel

free. We have a lot of events planned

for the rest of the season and

appreciate that the employed cannot

come out to everything, but any help

is greatly appreciated. If you are put

off by the fact that you don’t know

enough, don’t be. At the moment we

have a lot of relatively new members

coming out – and they are learning

FAST.

3


Please read this article - important changes to subscription arrangements

For several years now, we have

pegged the subscription to the Bat

Group Bat at £8. This covers the cost

of producing and distributing the

newsletter and paying for the

website, as well as covering other

running costs (cake and batteries

mainly), but leaves us little to spare.

(Generally speaking, equipment is

paid for by data searches and bat

care by stalls and talks we do.)

Since that time the cost of postage

and printing has increased (a large

envelope second class stamp now

costs 73p). About half of you have

opted to get the newsletter as a

pdf, and all complimentary copies

are now sent as pdfs, which has

saved money.

There is no intention of stopping

the printed version of the

newsletter, but we do want to

make some changes in order to

avoid increasing the sub. (We are

very grateful to those of you who

include a little extra something with

your sub.)

Your subscription is due in October,

but a number of people are

renewing much later than this. In

the past we have continued to send

everyone the January issue, but

now, in order to save money, we

will not be sending out the January

paper copy unless we have received

your renewal by December 10th.

Folk on the pdf list will receive the

January issue, but you will be

removed from the circulation list if

you have not paid by March 14th

2015.

Those of you who are paying by

BACS, please let Tony know that you

have made the payment, as some of

you are still not making it clear who

you are when paying this way. If you

want an acknowledgement of receipt

then tell Tony this. (We get

statements monthly, so there has to

be a time delay - we cannot use on-

line banking as we have two

signatories for the account and

therefore no single member can

access these accounts.)

I am publishing this information now

in order that you can save up your

pennies.

I will repeat this information in the

October issue of the newsletter.

Yet another new toy

Photo of a harp trap at sunset at Harrold Odell by

Nicky Monsey.

Harp traps are horrifically expensive

pieces of equipment, so although it

was on our wish list we felt that

buying one when the group had just

bought an acoustic lure was out of

the question.

But then two events presented

themselves in quick succession:

Daniel Whitby sourced some traps

direct from their manufacturer in

Australia and was offering them at

much reduced prices, but we still

couldn’t afford one.

Then Jude and Bob went out

shopping to replace their car. This

we managed to do at a lower cost

than we had budgeted for, at which

point Bob had another of his cunning

plan moments. He would buy the

trap with the money we had saved

and we could work out later if we

could get sponsorship.

As soon as the harp trap arrived in

the UK, Bob hot-footed it down to

Daniel Whitby’s to pick it up and the

rest, as they say, is history.

You can see how much use we put it

to if you read on.

4


Looking at Leisler’s ‘As an optimist, I am sure

that we shall eventually be

able to say with conviction:

“We have at least 12 species

of bat in Bedfordshire”.’

Bob Cornes, October 2011

Photo by Nigel Millbourne

Once upon a time, many years ago, a

Bat Group member found what was

claimed to be a Leisler’s. As he

refused to let Joan Childs or Tony

Aldhous take a close look, the record

is somewhat doubtful. For years now

we have been hearing bats that we

thought were Leisler’s, but their calls

are very similar to Noctules,

especially in cluttered environments

(ones with lots of trees). So the jury

has been out – until, that is, the

beastie on the front cover dropped

into the harp trap seconds after Bob

had started playing the Leisler’s call

o n the autolure.

This is the first Leisler’s we have ever

caught in the county, so you can

imagine the excitement (Dave Odell

almost died and went to heaven and

has called it his best night of bat

watching night ever).

A few years ago we regarded any big

bat call as belonging to a Noctule;

now we have been painstakingly

looking at recordings to double

check that the call isn’t a Leisler’s or

a Serotine. (We are getting adept at

identifying Serotines, but Leisler’s

are still hellish.)

Lisa Mason recognised

(correctly) a Leisler’s in

2012 during a

Bechstein’s survey.

This year we made a

recording over the lake

at Harold and, in a

clutter-free environment,

were able to identify a

definite Leisler’s so

when we resume

trapping, it’s back to

HOCP we go.

Nyctalus leisleri is like a

smaller and rather

shaggy Noctule; one of

the older names for it is

the Lesser Noctule. The

outer edge of the ear is

pale, as is the fold of

skin that reaches the

corner of the mouth, and the base of

the hair is dark black-brown. It is a

rare bat with a UK population

estimated to be around 10,000 in 1995

and was placed on the red list of the

IUCN 2006: Least Concern. The

principal threat seems to be habitat

destruction. It is a woodland bat that

prefers to roost in natural holes and

crevices, but will use buildings and

bat boxes. Leisler's forage in open

habitats, especially around lakes and

rivers, also over pastures flying quite

high above the ground (10-70 metres

according to Russ, 1999). Food

typically consists of moths, beetles,

caddis flies and flies caught and

devoured on the wing.

Seen in flight, it is indistinguishable

from a Noctule but it can be readily

identified in the hand by the shaggy

fur on its head and forearms. It was

once called the hairy-armed bat) and

by measuring its forearm length,

which doesn’t overlap with that of

Noctules. Their echolocation calls

are slightly different from those of

Noctules, and we have about 15

records over a number of years that

were identified as probably Leisler’s.

The most convincing, most consistent

and most recent records come from

Priory Country Park where Danny

has recorded bats with calls like

Noctules but a peak frequency in the

mid 20s kHz which seem to be flying

over open water. (Peak frequency is

the frequency at which the bat call is

loudest.) However, when Noctules

fly into less open environments, they

increase the peak frequency of their

calls and make them very like

Leisler’s. In other circumstances,

Leisler’s vary their calls and they

may become very like those of

Serotines. Because bats adjust their

calls to give useful echoes in the

particular surroundings in which

they find themselves, most habitats

cause all three ‘big bats’ to sound

rather similar. We therefore have

quite a few records which are

classified as ‘Noctule or Leisler’s’,

‘Leisler’s or Serotine’ or even

‘unidentified big bat’. What we

needed was to catch one or, failing

that, to have a clear view of a big bat

flying in a very open place with a bat

detector recording which shows the

calls falling no lower than about 23

kHz. Please let Bob know if you see

big bats looking like Noctules flying

in the open when the sound on your

bat detector fades out as you tune

below 20 kHz. The most promising

places are the larger lakes such as

Priory or Harrold-Odell, but these

tend to have so many bats flying

over them that it can be difficult to

listen clearly to one. You can see

more photos of Leisler’s at

http://www.milbourne.net/HOSTED

SITES/blagdonlakebirds/batinfoleisle

rsbat.html (T he rest of the site is well

worth a look. Nigel’s photos are

brilliant.)

Jude Hirstwood and Bob Cornes

http://www.milbourne.net/HOSTEDSITES/blagdonlakebirds/batinfoleislersbat.html



5


They seek him here, they seek him there,

They seek Nathusius everywhere.

This photo of the three species of Pipistrelles being held in the hand of Daniel Hargreaves was set to be the front cover of this

edition but got relegated here when (a few minutes later) we caught a Leisler’s. L to R: Nathusius, Common and Soprano

Pipistrelle. Photo: Bob Cornes

For us, I suppose it all really

started when Daniel Hargreaves

and BCT ran a one-day

conference on Nathusius, hosted

by the YAGWAG group which

had helped Daniel monitor the

Nathusius at Blagdon Lake. In

attendance was John Russ who

started off the hunt for Nathusius.

Since then they have got funding

for a National Nathusius Project.

Daniel and Kate Barlow from BCT

produced a protocol and got the

necessary licences and four bat

groups were picked for the pilot.

These were groups which already

had good evidence of Nathusius.

However, the ever-inclusive

Daniel said that any bat group

with the right equipment could

join in, so we of course leapt on

the bandwagon emboldened by

the discovery of a Nathusius in a

harp trap last year at Swineherd.

Bob combed the bat group

records and then turned his

attention to OS maps, looking for

suitable sites. (Research seems to

show that Nathusius like large

water bodies.)

We began by doing daytime

sorties and followed this with bat

detector surveys.

Stewartby Lake looked

promising, but the light pollution

was so bad there were very few

bats there.

Tiddenfool Lake near Heath and

Reach proved to be a fantastic site

(see page 10), but we have not yet

found a Nathusius.

Once we got a bat recorder record

of a Nathusius, we went onto

Phase 2 of the project and began

to trap monthly. (The licence

specifically allows project

members to trap up to six times a

year in one site and Bob is an

agent on this licence). A bat that is

caught is processed (vital

statistics, weight, gender) and

then ringed. In addition, a small

fur clipping is taken. This is sent

for analysis. The aim is to do

some stable isotope analysis to

see if they can

identify where the

bat has come from.

Poo is also collected

for DNA analysis

wherever possible.

Daniel Hargreaves

came to help us on a

couple of occasions

- including the night

we caught both

Nathusius and Leisler’s.

(Remember that Daniel has been

present on both occasions that we

caught a Nathusius.) Trapping

will obviously not take place

when the females are heavily

pregnant or lactating.

We have spent about 200

volunteeer hours on this so far.

Thanks to everyone who has

helped out – we welcome more

helpers!

We will give you feedback on

how other groups are doing in a

later edition. All I will say for the

moment is: did Steve and Fee

Parker of the South Lancs bat

group really need to find 34 of the

creatures? That’s just showing off!

The Surrey bat group was even

worse, catching five Alcathoe bats

in one night!

6

Bats in Beds The newsletter of the Bedfordshire Bat Group July 2014 Volume 105

A summary of results as of June 4th

The number in brackets after the site name is the number of attempts we have made at harp trapping. You can see just

how useful the combination of lure and harp trap has been in getting records. Aidan has modified his home-made trap

and made a sturdier version which is easier to erect.

Site Reccy Bat detector

survey

Nathusius

detected

Nathusius

caught

Other notable finds

Swineshead

Wood ***(2013)

Barbastelle

Stewartby(1) x x Soprano, common pipistrelle

and Noctules

Tiddenfoot( 3) Serotines

Priory (3) Leisler’s on bat detector

Voldermort*** (3) Leisler’s

HOCP (3) Natterer’s

Leisler’s on bat detector

GrafhamWater*(2) WAB

Stockgrove**(1) Serotine

* Grafham Water is in Cambs, but this survey was organised by Aidan and included other bat group members so I

have included it.

** Stockgrove Lake is probably too small for Nathusius but we are making regular recordings just in case.

*** Voldermort is Tony’s name for a site in Mid Beds whose location we are not revealing.

Stable isotope analysis This is a relatively new technique

which, it has to be said, is yet to

be proved. Common elements

such as phosphorus and carbon

have rarer isotopes which have

long half-lives and can therefore

build up in fur over a long period

of time. The idea is to analyse the

levels of these isotopes as it seems

likely that small differences are

found according to where the

animal is caught. In theory, one

can tell where the bat has been in

recent months (like humans, bats

shed hair over time). By building

up a library of fur clippings over

time, if the technology improves

we may be able to get further

information as to whether the

bats we catch are migratory.

(Remember one of Daniel’s

Blagdon bats turned up in

Holland earlier this year

(Newsletter April 2014 page 9:

Punk Bat).

Further reading This could have been a very much

longer article. But there was so

much else happening that I have

had to be more concise. If you want to read more about

Nathusius and the hunt for them,

have a look at the following

articles in the newsletter and on

the website.

Nathusius pipistrelle

http://www.bedsbatgroup.org.uk/

wordpress/?page_id=2157

Recognising Nathusius calls

http://www.nathusius.org.uk/ID_

echolocation_calls.htm. (This is

Jon Russ’ website which is the

definitive site on Nathusius.)

Newsletter article on pipistrelles

2008-7-all about pipistrelles There is more detail on the

website – click on the May/June

2014 sidebar on any page on the

website.

Officer of the lure Soggy’s bad pun lives on. We

have to take a computer into the

field to play the calls. It is kept

dry by putting the kit into a

waterproof case. Bob has labelled

this with pictures of Inspector

Clouseau – and has also added

the picture below onto the

computer as a screen-saver. His

efforts were made worthwhile by

Soggy’s spluttered reaction.

All I can say is “Just wait until he

gets the T-shirt.”

http://www.bedsbatgroup.org.uk/wordpress/?page_id=2157

http://www.bedsbatgroup.org.uk/wordpress/?page_id=2157

http://www.nathusius.org.uk/ID_echolocation_calls.htm

http://www.nathusius.org.uk/ID_echolocation_calls.htm

http://www.bedsbatgroup.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2008-7-all-about-pipistrelles.pdf

7


New Research on Bats’ Tongues

Scientists have known for a long time

that the tongue of the nectar-feeding bat

Glossophaga soricina was covered with

tiny hairs, but these structures were

considered to be passive and unable to

move on their own, like the strings of a

floor mop. The hairs were thought to

have developed as a means of increasing

the tongue's surface area to help the bat

gather nectar as quickly and efficiently

as possible.

Cally Harper, a graduate student in

ecology and evolutionary biology at

Brown University in Providence, Rhode

Island, and her team reanalyzed the

tongue of G. soricina and discovered a

previously unknown network of veins

and arteries that are associated with the

tiny hairs on the tip of the bat's tongue.

"When we saw this, we hypothesized

that the hairs on the tongue tip might fill

with blood and become erect during

nectar feeding," said Harper.

This confirmed that the tongues actually

changed shape in live bats.

The tongue tip becomes engorged with

blood in 0.04 seconds – too fast to

glimpse with the unaided eye.

But a high-speed camera capturing 500

video frames per second revealed that as

the tongue protrudes from the bat's

mouth, the hairs are resting flat against

the tongue. Only when the tongue is

completely outstretched and the tongue

tip fills with blood do the papillae flare

out, perpendicular to the axis of the

tongue. As the hairs fill with blood, they

change colour, from light pink to bright

red.

In their erect state, the hairs not only add

exposed surface area, but also width,

thereby increasing the overall

effectiveness of the tongue as a nectar

mop.

Photo by Jude Hirstwood

Cang Lam, a California-based medical

engineer thinks the shape-shifting bat

tongue could be used as a model for

devices able to wind through small blood

vessels and then later change shape, from

straight and narrow to a circular brush.

"One device I can immediately think of

is a clot retriever for stroke patients,"

said Lam.

Thanks to Elaine Rigby

Source:

http://www.insidescience.org/conten

t/shape-shifting-bat-tongue-mops-

nectar/1000

We had to cancel a couple of trapping sessions due to rain. So, what

did Bob do with an unexpected free evening?

8


Our Visit to the Isle of Wight Bat Hospital

Kelly Robinson took a well

earned break, but of course

it wasn’t bat-free Photo: Copyright IOW bat hospital

Hedj and I, along with a couple of

friends collect the holiday vouchers

from the paper. With my friends set,

we decided to go south again,

however the south coast got booked

up really quickly and the only area

left was the Isle of Wight. So we

booked up ... plus the only dates

available happened to be my

birthday weekend: hooray!

So I chose to call up Donna Street

who runs the bat hospital and

arranged a visit. I was also invited to

attend a bat walk on the Friday

night, which was great as my mate,

Paula, has never been on one despite

my efforts to get her out. She loved it

as she got to meet a Serotine and a

Noctule. When Graham (Donna's

husband) gave my friend a bat

detector, she was off and we had to

catch her up!

Donna and Graham have been

running the hospital since 1997 and

offer a 24/7 service. The hospital is

ran from their house and is mostly

contained in their sons’ old bedroom

- one way of making sure the

fledglings don't come home to roost!

Plus with their normal jobs they pack

a lot in! They do have volunteers that

go to their house and help them out

and have a friend who recently got a

licence to keep bats and has built a

flight cage in her garden which will

help them greatly.

They have a 77% success rate on

release of bats and hold a licence to

keep up to 50 bats for six months or

longer, which is a required condition

if you have long-term patients/

permanent captives due to bats being

a protected species.

One permanent captive that will get

used for education is a one-winged

Barbastelle who is a recent addition:

they think that someone stepped on

her and did irreversible damage to

her shoulder, so the vet had to take

the decision to amputate whilst she

was with him. I met her whilst I was

there and she has a lovely nature.

What I really wanted to see was a

grey long-eared which unfortunately

they did not have whilst I was there,

but one came in the week after ...

typical!!

One interesting bat I met was

Beswick, a male Pip with most of his

wing membrane missing. Below are

some photos of Beswick both when

he arrived and six months later.

When we met Beswick it was eight

months after and the wing had

nearly all grown back. They are

hoping to flight test him over the

summer and fingers crossed, release

him. It’s amazing how well the wing

has healed.

I know some people don't agree on

naming bats in care, but for these

guys it is the best way to keep track

of the bats at the hospital as they

have a hospital board with cards

with details of the bat and any

medication the bat may be on.

They have two areas for bats: bats

that are needing medication, feeding

by hand and releasable bats on one

side, and on the other side any

permanent guests. They also have a

naming book and go through themes

- Greek gods and goddesses is the

current one with the Barbastelle

being called Aphrodite. They keep

paper records, one of which is a sheet

to send off to Maggie Brown so she

can be kept informed.

Donna gave me some great tips as

well, which I shall pass onto Beds bat

carers, and they have wonderful

support from their 'experienced in

bats' vet who only charges for

consumables (a bit like Acorn house

in Bedford, as they have a good

wildlife policy now) and has no

problem with operating on such tiny

mammals. In fact Donna told me a

story of a bat that died on his table

but he managed to resuscitate it as he

is very passionate.

The hospital is supported financially

by Donna and Graham's pocket and

any donations received, with a lot of

support from the local community.

9

Bats in Beds The newsletter of the Bedfordshire Bat Group July 2014 Volume 105

The local pet store did a mealworm

fund-raiser for them by allowing

people to buy a box for the hospital,

so the next time Donna went to get

some the account had money in it

from donations. They spend

approximately £2,000 per year on

mealworms alone.

Donna also told me about a study

they are involved in currently:

Stacey Wareing from Reading

university “Bats and breathable

membrane”. The membrane goes up

behind the roost bags and is well

stuck down. They are applying

caution with the larger apertures on

the membrane and the bats in the

aviary. It should prove to be a very

interesting paper once it is

completed.

Situated where they are, they

occasionally get the odd European

species as well: Kuhl's Pipistrelle and

Parti Coloured bat have both paid a

visit to the hospital. They also get

phone calls from abroad seeking

advice, which they are always

willing to give - so that's worth

bearing in mind if you need help as

these guys are very passionate,

experienced and friendly!!!

Finally, if you are ever on the island

give them a buzz and pay them a

visit - it’s worth it! Also their

volunteers run a Facebook page for

them now and are revamping the

website, so check those out for more

information on the above , photos of

the hospital and video clips.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Isl

e-of-Wight-Bat-

Hospital/223408724459372?id=223408

724459372&sk=info

http://iowbathospital.org.uk/

Photo by Hedj

Dollman

P.S.

Committee-

Hedj wants

one of

these....

Brilliant cheap detector and a surreal disclaimer

In May Bill Champkin treated

himself to one of the “ultrasonic

detectors” being sold by Argos, for

the bargain price of £8 and waxed

lyrical about it.

I put a post in the Bedfordshire Bat

Group Facebook page and several

other bat group members bought one

and were equally impressed.

They are now available from Toys R

Us for £9.96.

You might be put off by the device’s

cheapness, but it is quite impressive,

and ideal for someone who wants a

starting point. It is being produced

with the Discovery Chanel to

encourage children’s interest.

Bob and Jude bought one to put on

the stall and take to talks and were

greatly amused by the labelling on

the box:

“T he hearing items shown on the

box .... are not included”. Sure as

hell beats “Batteries not included“.

In the same vein as Starbucks

warning you that their cups contain

hot liquid.

Angie Cornwell limped round the first Stockgrove Survey of the year but her injured knee

didn’t appreciate it. She has been told to rest said area for the rest of the season and so she

must sit out the rest of the surveys. Geraldine and Dick Hogg kindly agreed to take over the

co-ordination of the project. We wish Angie a speedy recovery. We are missing her.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Isle-of-Wight-Bat-Hospital/223408724459372?id=223408724459372&sk=info




http://iowbathospital.org.uk/

10


A spectacular new bat site in Beds Photo: Friends of Tiddenfoot

It’s a bit embarrassing to admit this,

but in 26 years of the bat group no

one, as far as we know, has ever been

to Tiddenfoot Water Park near

Leighton Buzzard with a detector.

We spotted it when looking for

possible Nathusius sites on an OS

map and, after a daylight reccy

earlier this month, we returned with

detectors on April 8th. As we drove

into the car park we noticed there

were horses in the field opposite and,

as one, thought: “Serotines” (which

like feeding on dung beetles that live

on horse dung).

The site was busy when we arrived -

people walking their dogs or coaxing

reluctant dogs back into cars, people

without dogs strolling for the fun of

it, runners doing a circuit of the lake,

fishermen in the space we had

thought would be a good netting site

– but tonight we were only going to

do a detector survey. Swans floated

impassively and photogenically on

the sunset-stained water, and the

land absorbed the people effortlessly.

It felt like we were the only people

there.

As dusk fell another life form

swarmed over the land. The tree

cover here is well established and

provides lots of cover and the lake

was as calm as a mill pond. Soprano

and Common Pipistrelles cavorted

amongst the trees while Noctules

flew higher in the sky, giving long

echolocation calls to mark their

mastery of the air high above the

lake. Ducks came close to beg, in

vain, for a titbit or two (unimpressed

when we told them we had no bread

and in any case it was bad for them).

We were only 30 minutes into the

survey when the heavens opened

and we retreated, leaving the bats

and ducks to their own devices.

The early finish meant we could look

at the sonograms last night. We had

missed some Myotis – probably

Daubenton’s given the habitat – but

best of all, were able to confirm that

there were indeed Serotines over the

lake.

On May 12th we returned and this

time the rain did not pour down, but

the Serotines did. We had Serotines

on the detector for a solid 20 minutes

and both Common and Soprano pips

were nonstop. In the 89 minutes I

recorded, only three minutes were

without bat calls.

We went back with two harp traps

on May 30th and it was uncannily

quiet. We got to meet one of the

friends who had tipped us off about

a couple of possible roosts nearby.

While she was there, we managed to

catch the first of four Soprano

Pipistrelles.

It was a beautifully warm evening

and there was no moon – ideal

situations for trapping, it might be

thought, but the bats had other ideas.

We caught four Sopranos in all and a

magnificent Noctule, who made it

very clear he was not best pleased

with being caught – and then refused

to leave – which gave us a very good

photo opportunity and Phil Gould a

lot more time handling his first

Noctule.

Photo by Jude Hirstwood

http://www.bedsbatgroup.org.uk/wo

rdpress/?p=8341

Photo Jude Hirstwood

This would make an ideal place for

bat walks now that there are parking

restrictions at Stockgrove. And we

have already agreed to do a walk for

the local Friends group on 23rd June.

We will probably trap there again

later this year.

http://www.tiddenfoot.org.uk/

http://www.bedsbatgroup.org.uk/wordpress/?p=8341

http://www.bedsbatgroup.org.uk/wordpress/?p=8341

11


Bat box project gets the go ahead for Harrold Odell

County Park

Kel Robinson has been

keeping busy

This is something I have been

considering for some time now, just

to see if we have any success like

Danny has had at Priory County

Park, especially as the sites are

similar. The question was 'How to go

about getting any funding?' With the

council cut backs, it was doubtful

that we could get any funding that

way.

Whilst we were out paddling in

February doing the potential tree

roost hunt at the park, we bumped

into Green Space officer Richard and

this idea came up in conversation.

Richard seemed quite keen on the

idea and suggested contacting the

Friends of HOCP group as they may

be able to help towards the funding

of this project.

So with Bob’s help on quotes on bat

boxes a proposal letter was put

together for the group’s next

meeting. Unfortunately the letter was

forgotten about and wasn't

presented, although we weren’t

aware of it at the time.

The beginning of May came, which

was my personal deadline to chase

this up and contact the Friends

directly, but luckily for me, Nicky

Monsey (Batty member) - who was

an officer at Priory Park - has now

moved to HOCP and she offered to

send it to the correct person.

The response was almost immediate

and very enthusiastic. Rather than

waiting for the group’s next meeting,

which was a couple of months away,

David Taylor (Chairman) contacted

the Friends of HOCP committee

recommending that they support the

bat group’s proposal on the 8th May.

By the 11th of May we had the go-

ahead with the full funding from the

friends of HOCP (£400) and Nicky is

going to do a talk for them at their

AGM at the end of July.

So Bob has ordered 4x2FNN, 3x2F

and 3x1FF that were delivered to

HOCP the day after ordering. We

have discussed where to put the

boxes up around the park, and are

planning to refer these suggestions to

Richard and get them up as soon as

possible. We have 28th June pencilled

in for this.

As soon as they start to get used, we

are planning to invite the Friends of

HOCP out on the monitoring

surveys and they are always

welcome on the bat detector surveys

- quite a few of them have now been

out with us around the park.

So, huge thanks to the Friends of

HOCP for supporting this project

and watch this space.

And thanks for Kelly for all her hard

work in sorting this out. She came up

with the locations for the boxes, which

were a very close match to what Bob had

been thinking. (Great minds think alike.)

It may be that the Friends will sponsor

more boxes if the project succeeds in

attracting bats into the boxes. Ed.

New records at Priory Photo by Danny Fellman

Danny is at again, snooping on the

bats that live in the bat boxes at

Priory. In April he found this record-

breaking occupation – nine bats in a

single channel of a Kent box. If you

look closely you can see that a wasp

is in the other channel, which led

Richard Lawrence to suggest that

was why they are huddled up close

together in the other channel

Then in mid-May Danny found

something to beat this – 14 bats in a

Clarke Kent Box (a Kent box with an

additional channel).

No photo of this, as the bats were

very active and Danny did not want

to disturb them.

12


WAB distribution Photo of an Alcathoe Bat by Milos Andera

Phil Brown came to talk to us at

the AGM in March.

Whiskered and Brandt’s were

first recognised as separate

species in the late 70s.

In 2001, Alcathoe bat was

identified in Greece. These three

bats are very difficult to tell apart

and DNA analysis became a real

boon.

Alcathoe bats have been found in

Sussex Surrey and North

Yorkshire, but none have been

found elsewhere.

Phil Brown’s MSc has been

investigating the distribution of

these bats in the UK and the

Bedfordshire Bat Group helped

him look at two sites: Baker’s Wood

and the site of the lakeside survey.

Phil was hoping to see whether there

was a difference in habitat preference

of the three and designed his

experiment to sample sites near and

away from water. He also set traps

on wood edges and deeper into

woodland.

In all, he sampled 70 sites. He caught

a total of 375 bats, of which 27 were

Whiskered, six Brandt’s and three

Alcathoe. These bats’ identifications

were confirmed by DNA analysis.

The three bats are found in similar

habitats and the thought is that they

are occupying different niches,

feeding on different species.

Phil has collected a lot of habitat

data, and is currently ploughing his

way through these to see if he can

develop a model to predict suitable

sites for WABs (in the same way as

Lia Gilmour modelled Bechstein’s

habitats). He is hoping to do further

DNA analysis on some of the

droppings in order to identify what

insects are eaten by the bats. Phil

asked bat groups to submit WAB

droppings.

The low level of Brandt’s and

Alcathoe make drawing conclusions

difficult.

Phil was amused to discover all three

of his Alcathoe bats were found in

Surrey and Sussex!

Noddy’s guide to DNA analysis

DNA is a double helix. It makes

copies of itself, by unzipping and

new molecules come in to fill the

empty spaces.

Genetic fingerprinting uses primers,

which bind to the DNA. These act as

markers for a particular section of

DNA. (Like putting a bookmark in a

book.) Different primers are used for

different species. Scientists can then

“cut out” sections of DNA and use

these fragments to identify species.

What is crucial is that you use the

right primer. The team analysing

Phil’s samples used a primer which

was not suitable for bats. The first

results he got identified the poo he

sent as belonging to lemurs as well as

several other non-bat species. When

the process was repeated with the

right primer, the results were much

more sensible. The technique is a

robust one and costs about £75 a

sample to analyse.

Just you try getting

me in a bat bag,

mate! Just you try...

13


BCT NBMP Field Survey workshop - May 2014 at The Lodge, Sandy, Beds.

Aidan Matthews reports

back.

Once again Colin Edwards and

Aidan Matthews were asked by BCT

whether the Bat Group would be

interested in organising a National

Bat Monitoring Project training

session in the Field Survey

methodology. As they are gluttons

for punishment and had nothing

better to do, they agreed to run the

workshop at the headquarters of the

RSPB, based at The Lodge, near

Sandy. We know that this is a bat-

rich site from a regular programme

of transect walks over the last 25

years by Tony Aldhous, with

occasional records of Serotines from

the nearby roost in Potton.

The evening started with an indoor

session and presentation from Colin

on the survey methodology, route

planning, health and safety

considerations and the ID of the

target species using sound files of

their typical calls. These are

recordings of the noise from a

Heterodyne detector’s speaker and

replicate what would actually be

heard whilst performing the survey.

Also included in these sound files are

the 'non-bat' sounds that are

commonly heard, such as keys,

clothing, mobile phones and those

accursed grasshoppers and crickets.

A quiz was held to check that people

had been paying attention and there

was a short break, where people

could get refreshments and eat cake

(well, it is a Bat Group Event, so

there would be cake!).

Aidan then gave a brief presentation

on how to create a survey route, a

roughly triangular transect route

covering one square kilometre made

up of 12 walks and 12 spots, using

the estate around The Lodge and

then handed out detectors to those

that didn't have one to use. Aidan

played a series of target species calls

through the ultrasound speaker,

which allowed the course attendees

to practise tuning in to perform

species ID.

They then headed outside to perform

a mock survey using the Field

Survey methodology, which took

them back up the main drive

towards the gatehouse.

The sky was quite clear and this

made it very light and a bit chilly,

two things that delay the emergence

of bats. The attendees split up into

several smaller groups led by Colin,

Aidan, Tony and Soggy and set off

on the first walk with detectors

tuned to 25kHz to listen for the Big

bats of Noctule, Serotine and

ignoring all other species including

Leisler’s. The bats were playing hard

to get due to the clear skies and the

groups made it to the first stop point.

Here the detectors were re-tuned to

50kHz to listen for two minutes for

the Pipistrelle species and all other

bats were ignored including

Nathusius Pips. Again the bats were

few and far between, with only a

couple of Common Pip passes heard

by the group led by Soggy.

As the groups worked their way up

the drive, the bats started to come in

a bit quicker and this gave people the

chance to ID real bats as they flew

past. This can be quite tricky as they

sometimes pass straight through

without much chance for re-tuning of

detectors before the bats have moved

off. Some of the groups were treated

to circling Common Pips and another

group had a Noctule flying out of

tree clutter into an open space -

which results in a modification in

their calls.

Aidan managed to get several call

sequences from Barbastelle, and

Colin picked up a set of Myotis calls.

The attendees kept their group

leaders busy with queries and calls

for assistance on the tuning in and ID

of the passing bats, but as they

returned to the Lodge they were

gaining in confidence and able to

readily identify the Pips that were all

around.

Several of the attendees signed

themselves up to some of the

unallocated repeat sites that BCT

have on their books and a group of

people in the Biggleswade area

swapped contact details to arrange

undertaking a regular Field Survey

route around the Holme Green area,

south of Biggleswade. There are still

plenty of unallocated sites in the

surrounding counties in both the

Field and Waterway surveys for

people to sign up for: contact the

NBMP team at BCT for more info on

these or get in touch with Aidan

Matthews to get involved within

Bedfordshire.

14


Bat walks talks and stall

On Apr. 29th Jude and Bob were

incited back to the Langford Beavers

to do another session.

We always enjoy going here

because Les , the pack leader,

has an effortless way of keeping

them in control. They listened

with rapt attention and had

some very astute questions for

us.

Les followed up our visit with a

lovely letter,l which I am

immodestly including here

“I've got to say a massive thank you to

both you and Bob ! The 21 young

Beavers sat brilliantly and were totally

captivated throughout your presentation.

My own young Beaver was still buzzing

with bat facts this morning !

I hope your 'bat hunt' went well last

night - I certainly saw some flying

around outside my house when I got

home later that evening ! ( We left early

to fail to trap Nathusius at Priory

Cheers again and keep up the brilliant

work you do .... hopefully you may have

some future volunteers from our group !

All the best.

Les”

Photo Jude Hirstwo0od

Now Viv Heys has become a lady of

leisure she is taking on some of the

talks – in particular the brownies and

similar as she is an ex Queen’s

Guide.

On May 23rd she headed off to

Dunstable Brownies with the

Powerpoint talk and a beautiful

assistant in the form of Malcolm

Harrison ( it is much easier if there

are two of you )and again it went

really well

Viv writes:

“We received an warm welcome and

the equipment was soon set up and

we were ready to start. Our audience

were attentive and very

knowledgeable. They asked many

questions and took a keen interest in

the bat detectors The toy bat we

took along nearly joined the

Brownies but was allowed to come

home with us.

A very special song of thanks was a

wonderful end to the evening. “

We got a really nice thank you, along

with £25 donation

“Just to say a big thank you for

the talk yesterday, our Brownies

thoroughly enjoyed it and we all

learnt something new about bats!

Once again, thanks for arranging

and to Viv and her glamorous

assistant, Malcolm for delivering

the talk at the right level.”

Walks We did our fist walk of the season a

Hockliffe Grange and saw both

Common and Soprano pipistrelle –

to the delight of the participants. I

guess the danger of looking for

rarities is that we forget how exciting

the more familiar bats are.

This year there are only three walks

at Priory as Danny and Nicky can no

longer do he walks as part of their

contract. They are, still voluntering

and the June walk was fully booked.

We got some very enthusiastic

feedback.

On June 23rd we organised a walk

for the friends of Tiddenfoot Water

Park

Stall Bob and Jude took the stall to an open day at Maulden Woods on May 5th As we

predicted we were not run off our feet and where able to have proper conversations

with people which resulted in several people taking away instructions n how to make

bat boxes and a request for a bat walk later this year

15


Some remarkable photos

These are some of

an amazing set of

photos taken by

local natural

historian and

naturaist David

Barnes. He posted

them on the

Bedfordshire Bat

Group Facebook

page. We are used

to seeing action

shots by people such as Mervin

Tuttle, and more recently by Daniel

Hargreaves- but these involve

expensive equipment and artificial

“sets”

What makes David’s pictures so

veryimpressive is that he has been

using “point and click” I am very

grateful for him letting us use his

photos and he had explained how he

got the pictures.

“ Last weekend I spotted some bats

(Pipistrelle) out in the evening up at the

stables so over the next few nights I tried

getting some photo's of them in flight. I

started off letting the flash do its own

thing on auto and managed a few bats in

frame but nothing to get excited about.

Having to preset the focus to a point and

wait for the bat to hit the mark is pretty

hit and miss but the location has

potential as the bats are feeding over the

muck heap and therefore restricted to a

fairly small area.

Laurie Campbell first told me about

photographing bats in this way when I

was at Aigas Field Centre on one of his

master class weeks. I didn't have an

external flash gun at the time but having

invested in one last year I'm now

equipped to give it a go. I contacted

Laurie for some advice on camera and

flash settings and he reminded me that it

was the speed of the flash that freezes the

movement of the bat so I needed to

manually set up the flash so that the

flash duration was around 1/5000s. A bit

of Googling for the flash duration of my

flash gun revealed I

needed to set it to

somewhere between 1/4

and 1/8 power. This

effectively reduces the

flash duration as

required but has the

knock on effect of

reducing the effective

range of the flash.

The next night I tried

1/8 power but struggled

to get enough effective

range from the flash. The

following night I tried

1/4 power which gave

me a bit more range and

a little flexibility in the

camera settings I could

use. This was much

more successful and I

managed 3 reasonable

images including 2 bats

in one frame which was

quite impressive given

there were only 3 bats

out!”

Editor’s note I have

incorporated the photo on he right

into my bat talks as it is the best

photo I have seen to point out the

wing in flight

You can see more of his photos

including lots of bird a t

http://djbblogging.blogspot.co.uk/2014/0

3/going-batty.html

http://www.lauriecampbell.com/portfolio.htm

http://www.aigas.co.uk/holidays/photography.asp

16


Why are Vesper bats so diverse?

Vespertilionids are a large family of

bats numbering more than 400

species across the globe and are

found all over the world, both in

tropical and temperate regions. (All

Britain’s bats except Horseshoes are

Vespers.) Among mammals they are

second only to rodents in terms of

species diversity.

Genome sequencing was carried out

recently for two Vesper bat species to

get insights on their physiology and

longevity. One reason for this

diversity might be jumping elements

in the genome, called DNA

transposons. These are a DNA

sequence that can change its position

within the genome, sometimes

creating or reversing mutations and

altering the cell's genome size.

Vesper bats are known to have high

DNA transposon activity. They are

also more recent in the evolutionary

history of this family than any other

mammal. But why and how the

DNA transposon activity increased

during the evolutionary cycle of

these bats is, as yet, unknown.

Researchers found that the timing of

bat species expansion coincided with

DNA transposon activity around 30

million years ago. DNA transposons

gave rise to the introduction of small

RNAs, called microRNAs, which are

powerful forces of genetic change,

and thus, evolutionary novelties.

The results suggest that transposable

elements have the potential to shift

evolution into overdrive by rapidly

introducing large numbers of small

RNAs. Those small RNAs don't

change the proteins that genes code

for, but instead affect how and when

the genes are expressed, thereby

allowing for rapid changes in the

way organisms interact with their

environment.

The authors further speculate that

the DNA transposon-influenced

diversity in bats occurred at the same

time that the Earth was undergoing a

huge climate change from warm

tropical conditions to a more

temperate climate, called the Eocene-

Oligocene transition, which occurred

33-34 million years ago.

http://www.isciencetimes.com/article

s/7021/20140401/species-diversity-

vesper-bats-linked-jumping-

genes.htm?fb_action_ids=1015204465

4048873&fb_action_types=og.likes

Thanks to Fiona Parker for this

With this ring Photo by Bob Cornes

Ever since we began the Kings Wood

bat box project, the bats have been

very co-operative, moving in much

faster than we had expected.

As a result of this, Bob decided to

begin ringing this year, having been

trained by the ubiquitous Daniel

Hargreaves and ordered rings from

the Bat Conservation Trust.

Last year’s May box check yielded

nothing more than blue tits, so hopes

were firmly reined in when Bob set

off for this year’s May check.

Never second guess a bat. When Bob

staggered home he reported having

found blue tits and several hornets in

the boxes. Much to his surprise, he

only managed 28 boxes. The reason

for this low count was that Bob

found and ringed 42 bats - and had

the numb

thumb

and

forefinger

to prove it.

He and

Mark Best

went back

later in the

week and

checked

the

remaining

boxes,

only three

of which

contained

bats.

This brought the number of bat

boxes which have been occupied by

bats at some stage to a remarkable

85%.

The reason for ringing bats other

than Pipistrelles is to follow in the

footsteps of the North Bucks Bat

Group and try to work out the social

networks which exist in the wood.

P.S. Another 40 bats were ringed on

8th June.

http://www.isciencetimes.com/articles/7021/20140401/species-diversity-vesper-bats-linked-jumping-genes.htm?fb_action_ids=10152044654048873&fb_action_types=og.likes





17


More research on the miracle of bat flight

Bats employ a network of nearly

hair-thin muscles embedded in the

membrane of their inherently floppy

wing skin to adjust the wings'

stiffness and curvature while they

fly, Brown University researchers

report. Birds and insects have stiff

wings, but the new evidence

suggests bats have evolved this

muscular means of preserving or

adjusting wing shape.

"Aerodynamic performance depends

upon wing shape," said Brown

biology graduate student Jorn

Cheney, lead author of the newly

published paper in Bioinspiration and

Biomimetics. "The shape of a

membrane wing might initially begin

flat but as soon as it starts producing

lift it's not going to remain flat

because it has to deform in response

to that aerodynamic load.

"The shape it adopts could be a

terrible one -- it could make the

animal crash -- or it could be

beneficial," Cheney said. "But they

are not locked into that shape.

Because bats have these muscles in

their wings, and also bones that can

control the general shape as well,

they can adopt any number of

profiles."

Cheney wasn't sure what to make of

the tiny

muscles,

called

plagiopatagiales, heading into the

experiments reported in the paper.

They have been known for more

than a century but their function has

never been demonstrated.

When Cheney considered the muscle

function, he estimated that each

individual muscle would be too

weak to reshape the wing. That led

him to form two competing

hypotheses: either that the muscles

would activate together to enhance

force or that these oddly shaped,

weak muscles might exist solely as

sensors of stretch.

Cheney attached electrode sensors to

a few muscles on the wings of a few

Jamaican fruit bats and filmed them

as they flew in the lab's wind tunnel.

One result was that the muscle

activation and relaxation follows a

distinct pattern during flight: They

tense on the downstroke and relax on

the upstroke.

This is the first study showing that

bats turn these muscles on and off

during a typical wingbeat cycle.

Another finding was that the muscles

don't act individually. Instead they

exert their force in synchrony,

providing enough collective strength

to stiffen the wing.

Finally, Cheney found, the muscles

appeared to activate with different

timing at different flight speeds. As

the bats flew faster, they tensed the

muscles sooner in the upstroke-

downstroke cycle.

In other words, the data suggested

that the muscles do not behave

passively but actively and

collectively in keeping with

conditions of flight.

This has implications for the

development of the wings of things

such as drones. Source

:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releas

es/2014/05/140523145348.h

Bat Lit

The Hobbit, chapter 8, Flies

and Spiders, J R

R Tolkien

Thanks Gerald ine

Hogg

“Worse still it brought thousands

of dark-grey and black moths,

some nearly as big as your hand,

flapping and whirring round their

ears. They could not stand that,

nor the huge bats, black as a top-

hat, either; so they gave up fires

and sat at night and dozed in the

enormous uncanny darkness.”

18


Confiscation of assets following bat crime is a step nearer

One of the frustrating things about

bat crime is that developers have

been getting off with very small

fines. However Richard Lawrence

just sent me this, so hopefully

things may at long last be

changing:

“Following a trial, which took place today at Chesterfield Magistrates Court, Hargurdial Singh Rai and his company ISAR Enterprises Ltd. were convicted of destroying a bat roost. Rai had bought properties in Matlock, Derbyshire which he intended developing. Despite the recommendations of an ecology report, which identified a Brown long-eared bat roost in the loft, he went ahead with his development, ripped off the roof, converted the loft and in doing so destroyed the roost. By avoiding the necessary emergence surveys, licences etc. Rai and his company saved a minimum of £5,737 (figure provided by BCT). The figure does not include any mitigation.

Upon conviction this afternoon, CPS made an application for a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing, which the bench agreed was appropriate. Magistrates committed Rai to Crown

Court for sentence and a POCA hearing.

This is the first time POCA has been considered for a bat persecution case – to the best of my knowledge anyway.

It may be suitable for other cases and help deter others from failing to deal with bats appropriately.”

It is so frustrating when so much

time is put in by police in

pursuing these people when the

end result is disappointing. BCT

has its own wildlife crime officer

in Pete Charleston, who is always

willing to give bat groups advice

and both he and the Bedfordshire

Police have been very helpful

when we have raised issues with

them recently.

A bat rediscovered

A bat has been caught

in New Guinea which

was thought to have

become extinct 150

years ago.

The bat was ethically

euthanized and taken to

the PNG National

Museum and Art

Gallery in Port

Moresby. Specimens

like this are an

important reference for

future research, and

also a good way to

identify species whose

identity cannot be

confirmed in the field.

In March 2014 the bat was loaned to the Australian Museum in Sydney, where researcher Harry Parnaby

identified it as Pharotis imogene – the New Guinea big-eared bat. Hopefully future specimens can be

sampled for DNA and released. Thanks to Elaine Rigby for finding this Source :

http://theconversation.com/lost-bat-species-rediscovered-after-120-years-in-the-wilderness

http://australianmuseum.net.au/journal/Hughes-2014-Rec-Aust-Mus-664-225232

http://theconversation.com/lost-bat-species-rediscovered-after-120-years-in-the-wilderness

19


Big Brown Bats warn others off their foraging areas

University of Maryland researchers

have learned that male big brown

bats in flight use a special call (a

FREQUENCY-MODULATED BOUT)

which is different from the

echolocation calls they use for

navigation. It is a sequence of three

to four sounds, longer in duration

and lower in frequency than the

typical echolocation pulses that big

brown bats use to navigate. It is often

followed by short buzz-like calls to

warn other foraging males away

from insect prey that they are

claiming for themselves. While some

animals that forage in groups are

known to emit calls to attract others

towards food sources, the FMB is

used to repel, not attract, other bats.

It is not known if other bats make

similar calls.

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/release

s/2014/03/140327123538.htm

Geomyces destructans found in more bat species in Czech Republic

While this fungus has caused

devastating declines in North

American bat populations, there

have been no apparent population

changes attributable to the disease

in Europe.

Scientists screened 276 bats of 15

species from hibernacula in the

Czech Republic over 2012 and

2013, and provided

histopathological evidence for 11

European species positive for

WNS. With the exception of

Myotis myotis, the other 10

species are all new reports for

WNS in Europe. Of these, M.

emarginatus, Eptesicus nilssonii,

Rhinolophus hipposideros,

Barbastella barbastellus and

Plecotus auritus are new to the

list of P. destructans-infected bat

species. While the infected

species are all statistically

phylogenetically related, WNS

affects bats from two suborders.

These are ecologically diverse and

adopt a wide range of hibernating

strategies. Occurrence of WNS in

distantly related bat species with

diverse ecology suggests that the

pathogen may be a generalist and

that all bats hibernating within the

distribution range of P.

destructans may be at risk of

infection.

Source :

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:

doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0097224

101 Uses for a dead bat No 86: Provide an inadequate food source

for a hungry insect, which has led to a strange

evolutionary

adaptation.

In desolate caves throughout Brazil,

live Neotrogla curvata, insects that

copulate for days, the female's

penetrating erectile organ sticking

fast in a reluctant male's genital

chamber until he offers a gift of

nutritious semen.

The key to the anatomy and role

reversal might be simple hunger.

Neotrogla species live in extremely

dry caves, where there is not much in

the way of food, save for bat guano

and the occasional dead bat. A

female needs enough nourishment to

make eggs and reproduce, though, so

she likely found another source of

nutrition: her mate’s semen capsule.

In some other insects, males expend

personal resources to create highly

sought-after ‘nuptial gifts’ of sperm

and nutrients that they bestow upon

their mate during copulation.

Although it’s not clear whether

Neotrogla couples do likewise, the

females accept seminal gifts and

drain them even when they’re too

young to reproduce, so it’s obvious

they’re using the sperm capsules for

more than mere reproduction.

If Neotrogla males need to spend

valuable resources producing their

sperm packets, it’s likely they would

be choosy about their mates, which

would help explain why the females

have evolved a penis well designed

to hold down reluctant mates long

enough to wring out all their gifts.

This might be a combination unique

to Neotrogla.

Source:

http://www.nature.com/news/female

-insect-uses-spiky-penis-to-take-

charge-1.15064

20

Bats in Beds The newsletter of the Bedfordshire Bat Group April 2013 Volume 100

What’s On To keep really up to date with events, follow what we

do on our Facebook Bedfordshire Bat Group and

Luton Project pages. A list of all this season’s events is

on the newsgroup in the files section (diary folder) on

the calendar on the newsgroup. Social and training

events are on the Events page on the Bedfordshire Bat

Group website. (About us drop down box). Other

events such as box-checking and woodland surveys

will be organised at shorter notice. These will appear

on the newsgroup as dates are confirmed. Maps are on

the website and the newsgroup. If you haven’t yet

joined the newsgroup, e-mail Jude and she will send

you an invitation.

08/07/14 River Ouse survey 21.00

10/07/14 Lakeside 20.50

14/07/14 Stockgrove 20,53

17/07/14 HOCP 20.05

20/07/14 Kings Wood Box

Survey 9.00

24/07/14 Lakeside 20.35

25/07/14 Priory Park walk 21.00


Survey 9.00

28/07/14 Stockgrove 20.35

05/08/14 Priory Bats and boats 29.30

07/08/14 Lakeside 20.10


13/08/14 New Luton survey 20.15

14/08/14 HOCP walk 20.20


Survey 9.00

21/08/14 Lakeside 19.45



28/08/14 Priory Bats and boats 20.00

01/09/14 Sandy 21.45

04/09/14 Lakeside 19.15

05/09/14 National Bat Conference all day

06/09/14 National Bat Conf all day


07/09/14 National Bat Conf all day




18/09/14 Lakesie 18.45


Survey 9.00


06/10/14 Surveyors' meeting 19.30

13/10/14 Committee meeting 19.30

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WOODLAND SURVEYS

WILL BE ARRANGED AT A LATER DATE. CHECK

THE NEWSGROUP. If you aren’t on the newsgroup

contact Jude and she will send you an invitation.

Thanks to everyone who helped with this edition of the

newsletter: Fee Parker, Steve Parker, Tony Aldhous,

Bob Cornes, Danny Fellman, Hedj Dollman, Aidan

Matthews, Soggy Sabiniarz, Kelly Robinson, Geraldine

Hogg, Dick Hogg, Nicky Monsey, Nigel Millbourne,,

Elaine Rigby and Josie Barrett (who proofread this

edition for me).

Printed by Fidelity Printers, Unit 24, Station Road Ind. Est., Ampthill,

Bedfordshire MK45 2QY. 01525 300 001

www.fidelityprint.co.uk/

Who you gonna call? Last minute events

See the newsgroup

Membership/ Sandy survey

Tony Aldhous

[email protected]

Newsletter Website Events Indoor meetings

Jude Hirstwood

30 Park Street, Ampthill, Beds MK45

2LR Tel 01525 403951

[email protected] Mob:07951 072691

Records Bob Cornes

[email protected]

Woodland surveys (Mid Beds)

Bob Cornes

30 Park Street, Ampthill, Beds MK45

2LR Tel 01525 403951

[email protected]

Mob 07845232430

Bat Care Simon Pidgeon

[email protected]

01525 217747

Lakeside Survey

Soggy Sabiniarz

Mob: 07870 747038

Stockgrove & Luton Parkway

Dick and Geraldine Hogg

01582 414057

[email protected]

m.

Harrold Odell Woodland surveys (Bedford)

Kelly Robinson

07903 756477

[email protected]

Priory events Bats in Boats River Ouse survey

Danny Fellman

[email protected].

mailto:[email protected]






Documents

Bats in Beds July 2014 Volume 105 in Beds July 2014 Volume 105 Newsletter of the Bedfordshire Bat Group Website . E mail: [email protected] Facebook – The Luton Project, The