Branscombe bats are good flyers!
SOME interesting bat behaviour has been brought to light following recent radio tracking in Branscombe. Greater Horseshoe bats have been the subject of the tracking by the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership.
SOME interesting bat behaviour has been brought to light following recent radio tracking in Branscombe.
Greater Horseshoe bats have been the subject of the tracking by the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership.
They are known as one of the rarer bats and the Looking Out for Bats Project is working to find out more about how they behave in the summer.
The project aims to work with landowners to carry out habitat and roost enhancement which allows the bats and their young to continue to thrive in the area.
Both male and female bats had tiny transmitters attached to their backs which emitted small pulses which could be detected from up to 2 kms away with specialist equipment- allowing volunteers to follow the bats movements.
The female bats were found to stay mostly in the valleys of Branscombe, feeding on moths and beetles and not venturing further than 2.5 miles from their maternity roost, while the males were found to travel much further.
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One male travelled more than 14 miles to Sidmouth and back to Branscombe before dawn, and another male was tracked all the way to Offwell.
Pete Youngman, the AONB Project Officer, said: "This tracking has allowed us to understand the bats much better and will mean that we now know which farmers we need to work with.
"Meanwhile we are still looking for another roost somewhere in the area as we have more bats during the winter than we have using the Branscombe roost. So if you have bats in your property and would like to find out which of the 17 species they are please get in touch so we can arrange a survey."
* If you would like to find out more about this project then please contact Pete Youngman AONB Project Officer on (01404) 46663.
