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BatChat

62 episodes - English - Latest episode: 23 days ago - ★★★★★ - 10 ratings

Taking you into the field to discover the world of bat conservation. BatChat is for anyone who loves bats or has an interest in the conservation of these fascinating mammals and the wider bat conservation community. Ecologist and BCT Trustee Steve Roe takes you on-location, talking to the experts as well as local heroes to bring you the latest from the world of bats. Series 5 is here with episodes released every other Wednesday. Bats are magical but misunderstood mammals. At the Bat Conservation Trust we have a vision of a world rich in wildlife where bats and people thrive together.

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Episodes

How to get a bat licence - with Richard Crompton

March 06, 2024 06:00 - 42 minutes - 28.9 MB

S5E55 Sat in the entrance to a cave in Wales, hidden amongst temperate rainforest, Richard Crompton gives you his insight into the best way to go about getting your bat licence. Richard has been training ecologists for many years now with around 400 people coming to his courses over the years. In this episode you'll hear about the different bodies that give licences, the different levels of licences and what they allow you to do, which one you should aim for as a consultant ecologist and the...

Bats at the National Trust

February 21, 2024 06:00 - 26 minutes - 18.3 MB

S5E54 This week Steve sits down with Joanne Hodgkins, nature conservation advisor for the National Trust. Sitting in the hot August sunshine at The Vyne near Basingstoke, Steve finds out how the National Trust cares not just for it's special places, but for it's special wildlife. Jo explains how bats are now a day to day part of her role at the Trust, how bats are at the centre of most projects on their Estates and how bat groups are an important part of the story. Find the National Trust o...

The sonic success of David King; Inventor of BatBox detectors

February 07, 2024 06:00 - 30 minutes - 21.2 MB

S5E53 This week we join David King who created the BatBox III and BatBox Duet detectors amongst several others for four decades. David tells Steve of how it all came about and they delve into the history of bat detecting, how the Bat Detective book and CD was created and we get an insight into his views on the future of technology used by ecologists and conservationists alike.   Find David on twitter and Instagram BatBox Ltd for their range of bat detectors The Bat Detective book and CD ...

Bat Tracking; the drones changing the way we can undertake research

January 24, 2024 06:00 - 34 minutes - 23.5 MB

S5E52 Steve calls in to Canberra, Australia to chat with Dr Debbie Saunders.  For over 20 years Debbie has worked as an ecologist and studied the movements of small migratory birds. This includes the Swift Parrot, one of Australia’s most endangered birds. Like many small animals, Swift Parrots could only be tracked with tiny, very high frequency (VHF) radio-tags. This meant that in order to understand their movements, researchers would have to regularly trek vast distances with handheld rec...

Bats in the Channel: Jersey Bat Group

January 10, 2024 06:00 - 34 minutes - 24 MB

S5E51 Join Steve in early summer on the Island of Jersey as he sits down with a trio from the bat group. In this interview we hear about the historic work of the group and the sort of survey work being done at the moment on the Island. With 18 bat species recorded on this 46 square miles of land just off the French coast, we hear there's still plenty more to be discovered.  Discover more about Jersey Bat Group and follow them on twitter, facebook and Instagram Watch the Jersey Bat Project ...

Boathouse to Bat House

December 27, 2023 06:00 - 33 minutes - 23.3 MB

S5E50 On the edge of Kidderminster lies Hurcott Pool and Wood Nature Reserve. An old boathouse on the edge of the pool has been repurposed by Worcestershire Bat Group and a few minutes away lies Lea Castle Village where the street lighting has been designed with bats at the forefront of its design. We join bat group members Cody Levine and Matthew Terry on a summer evening at the end of July.  Watch a video of the boathouse on YouTube Discover more about Worcestershire Bat Group and follow...

Walking with bats

December 13, 2023 06:00 - 33 minutes - 23.3 MB

S5E49 This week we join BCT member Mark Ferguson who has just released his latest album; Walking With Bats. What does it sound like to go bat detecting? From start to finish, this question has underpinned Walking with Bats. Mark's main goal throughout the album's development has been simple: to transport listeners directly to the field, placing their ears where his are so they can experience the excitement of bat detecting through their own headphones.   Find the album on Mark's website or ...

The Lifesaving Legacy of Livingstone's Fruit Bats at Jersey Zoo

November 29, 2023 06:00 - 36 minutes - 24.8 MB

S5E48 Jersey Zoo in the Channel Islands is home to 90% of the world's captive population of Livingstone's fruit bats. With an estimated 1300 in the wild, this captive breeding programme is vital to the survival of the species in a disaster event. We join Dominic Wormell inside the bat enclosure as he explains how they care for the colony and how the bats are received by the visiting public. Discover more about the colony here Have a listen to our other zoo episode from Chester Zoo More about...

Gargoyle Guardians: A Bat Count at Lacock Abbey with the Wiltshire Bat Group

November 15, 2023 06:00 - 25 minutes - 17.3 MB

S5E47 On the edge of the Cotswolds lies Lacock Abbey, home to Professor Quirrel's classroom and the Mirror of Erised. But whilst millions of people will recognise the Cloisters of the Abbey used in the filming of the Harry Potter franchise, a rather special spectacle can be found here once the sun goes down. A soprano pipistrelle bat roost hidden in the roof of Sharrington's tower is regurgitated each evening from the mouths of the gargoyles that surround the tower. We join Wendy Priest as s...

The Bechstein's of Bracketts

November 01, 2023 06:00 - 43 minutes - 29.6 MB

S5E46 Hidden in west Dorset is a nature reserve which holds a very special secret. A bat box scheme which was installed in the late 1990's is home to one of the most well-studied colonies of Bechstein's bats. Join Steve as he spends the day with the Vincent Wildlife Trust and Dorset Wildlife Trust as they undertake one of their monthly inspections of the boxes, adding to this really important data which has been collected over the last quarter of a century. We hear from Patrick Wright, VWTs ...

It's time for Series 5!

October 18, 2023 06:00 - 2 minutes - 1.49 MB

BatChat Series 5 is set to kick off on Wednesday November 1st, with an exciting lineup of guests and fascinating interviews. Stay tuned for more great content and enriching conversations. Don't forget to check out the accompanying video on YouTube for more batty content. Mark your calendars, set your reminders and get ready for the return of BatChat! If you're new to BatChat, episodes are released every second Wednesday throughout each series taking listeners through autumn, winter and earl...

A new exhibition of wildlife sound at the British Library

April 26, 2023 04:00 - 29 minutes - 20.5 MB

S4E45 - Bonus! This summer, in a major new exhibition, you can see how documenting the animal world has resulted in some of humankind’s most awe-inspiring art, science and sound recordings: Animals: Art, Science and Sound is now open at the British Library Part of the exhibition is dedicated to darkness and Steve got to have a preview of what's on show a couple of days before the exhibition opened. In this interview with Cheryl Tipp, curator of Wildlife and Environmental Sounds, Steve disco...

Wild Isles

April 02, 2023 19:00 - 39 minutes - 27.1 MB

S4E44 - Bonus! The landmark nature documentary series Wild Isles, presented by Sir David Attenborough is currently transmitting on Sunday's at 7pm on BBC One. The fourth episode "Freshwater" features a fabulous bat sequence, recorded in Yorkshire of the phenomenon of autumn swarming. Back in November as the series had entered picture lock, Steve went along to the offices of Silverback films to interview assistant producer Lily Moffatt who worked on the sequence. Lily explains how they captur...

The History of Bat Conservation with Dr Bob Stebbings

March 01, 2023 05:00 - 47 minutes - 32.7 MB

S4E43 As series four comes to a close, Steve sits down with a titan of bat conservation. Dr Robert (Bob) Stebbings is one of the original bat workers in the UK and in this episode we hear about some of the major bat conservation work undertaken by Bob over the last half century. Make sure you follow the show so you get notified of our two bonus episodes which will go out before the next series. The first of those will be an interview with the team who made Wild Isles and you can watch the ...

Bats find mates at Cliveden House

February 15, 2023 05:00 - 22 minutes - 15.7 MB

S4E42 This week Steve joins Chris Damant in the grounds of Cliveden House on the banks of the River Thames. As fine dining takes place in the hotel above them, Chris and his team have set up traps to catch bats as they arrive to mate in the middle of the night. Underneath the south terrace are a number of rooms which mimic underground structures and its these that the bats travel to from far and wide to undertake an annual phenomenon, autumn swarming. Cliveden hosts one of the most important...

Winged passions: The bat basement of Cliveden House

February 15, 2023 05:00 - 22 minutes - 15.7 MB

S4E42 This week Steve joins Chris Damant in the grounds of Cliveden House on the banks of the River Thames. As fine dining takes place in the hotel above them, Chris and his team have set up traps to catch bats as they arrive to mate in the middle of the night. Underneath the south terrace are a number of rooms which mimic underground structures and its these that the bats travel to from far and wide to undertake an annual phenomenon, autumn swarming. Cliveden hosts one of the most important...

Tony Hutson & the greater mouse-eared bat

February 01, 2023 05:00 - 38 minutes - 26.2 MB

S4E41 Tony Hutson has been shouting about bats since the 1960's and has changed the bat conservation landscape in that time. He was a founding member of the bat groups of Britain, the precursor to the Bat Conservation Trust. His survey work on the lonely greater mouse-eared bat inspired a play and he's been on expedition to a remote cave with astronaut Neil Armstrong. Steve sits down with Tony in this episode to find out more about Tony's work. Read our news story about the discovery of the...

How the Western Link could affect the Western barbastelle

January 18, 2023 05:00 - 39 minutes - 27 MB

S4E40 In this interview recorded right at the end of August 2022, Steve is sat in a Norfolk woodland with Dr Charlotte Packman. We learn what potential impacts a new road in the area might have on the local bat populations and as Lotty explains it could have a significant impact on a nationally significant barbastelle bat population. Lotty works for the Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) as their Conservation Scientist and the research discussed in this episode has been a collaboration between NWT...

The bat man of Mexico

January 04, 2023 05:00 - 28 minutes - 19.9 MB

S4E39 Rodrigo Medellín is Mexico's very own 'Bat Man'. Since he first kept vampire bats in his bathroom as a child, Rodrigo has dedicated his life to saving them. On the evening of the 2022 UK National Bat Conference, Steve sits down with Rodrigo and asks him what it felt like to succeed in taking the lesser long nosed bat off the endangered species list and what it felt like to watch the bat volcano of Calakmul for the first time. National Geographic Explorer at Large Rodrigo Medellín Rodr...

Bat flies with Dr Erica McAlister

December 21, 2022 05:00 - 36 minutes - 25.1 MB

S4E38 We return to London's Natural History Museum. This time however, we're in the bowels of the Diptera collection with flygirl herself, Dr Erica McAlister. If you think you recognise that name it's because Erica has graced the airwaves several times before including BBC Radio 4's The Infinite Monkey Cage and The Life Scientific. As you'll hear in this episode, Erica needs help from those of us who regularly handle bats. If you're a bat carer or a bat worker who undertakes bat box checks o...

Haddon Hall

December 07, 2022 05:00 - 24 minutes - 17.2 MB

S4E37 Haddon Hall, the private residence of Lord and Lady Edward Manners,  is set in the Peak District in the valley of the River Wye. With nine hundred years of history, it is one of the oldest houses in the country and moreover one of the only houses in England to have remained in one family’s ownership for its entire existence. In the corner of the Hall, a large soprano pipistrelle bat roost resides within the roof of the Chapel. Steve chats with Lord Edward about rewilding of the estate,...

The find of the century

November 23, 2022 05:00 - 35 minutes - 24.7 MB

S4E36 You join us in a secret location this week. Back in 2019, Scotty Dodd from the Sussex Bat Group made the most significant discovery in the history of the bat group...the first maternity roost of greater horseshoe bats in Sussex for one hundred years. Truly the find of the century! In a small dry valley surrounded by beech trees, Scotty & Steve are sat in front of the run-down stable block as Scotty describes to Steve how he came across the roost and got the verification he was looking ...

Bat roost visit service

November 09, 2022 05:00 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MB

S4E35 We're back with a brand new series! This week Steve joins a volunteer roost visitor, Chris Smith from Staffordshire Bat Group, on a roost visit requested by the Bat Conservation Trust. Chris discusses the value of the free service, how he got into volunteering for the visits and why he thinks it provides such a great positive outcome for bats (most of the time!). Hear how Chris undertakes the survey and provides advice to the roost owners afterwards. Want to know more about bats livi...

Series 4 is nearly here!

October 19, 2022 06:00 - 3 minutes - 2.4 MB

BatChat is returning on 9th November 2022 with series 4 and we want to hear from you! Yes that's right; you guys, your voices, on this show. We want you to get in touch with your favourite bat experience. Maybe you discovered bats living in your house, you went on a bat walk for the first time or you saw bats somewhere you weren't expecting. Whether you’re new to bats or a seasoned bat lover, we want to hear all about your favourite bat experience. So how do you leave this message? Well yo...

Knepp Rewilding Estate

March 23, 2022 05:00 - 38 minutes - 26.7 MB

S3E34 Hidden amongst the boughs of an Oak tree, Steve & his guests look down over the Knepp Castle Rewilding Estate; former farmland which has been allowed to return to nature by the owners Isabella Tree & Charlie Burrell. In this episode, as the sun sets the light turns golden. Below us red deer begin to bellow at the start of the rutting season, a green woodpecker calls out from amongst the tussocky grassland and bats begin to flit about the Oak canopy they're stood in. Our guests in this ...

The National Bat Monitoring Programme

March 09, 2022 05:00 - 42 minutes - 29.3 MB

S3E33 Discover the amazing work taking place in the dead of night each year by hoards of volunteers. This episode starts with Steve joining a team of these volunteers who are counting out a brown long-eared bat roost in the Derbyshire Dales at dusk as a nearby rookery gathers. We then sit down in Battersea Park, London with Philip Briggs, monitoring manager for the Bat Conservation Trust who collates all of this data sent in by volunteers and turns it into invaluable trends to establish how ...

Angela Mills; Bobby the brown long-eared bat

February 23, 2022 05:00 - 28 minutes - 19.9 MB

S3E32 Join Steve on the Welcombe Hills overlooking Stratford-upon-Avon as he sits down with the author of Bobby the brown long-eared bat, a children's book which follows the adventure of a baby brown long-eared bat who lives in the attic of a farmyard. Sitting in the autumn sunshine on a wooden bench watching the world go by, Angela reveals to Steve where the inspiration for Bobby came from, how she got into the world of bats, the challenges of publishing as well as revealing what's next in ...

Bat conservation in action with Jim Mullholland

February 09, 2022 05:00 - 28 minutes - 19.8 MB

S3E31 This week Steve is on the Tortworth Estate in south Gloucestershire with Jim Mullholland. They're joined by a voluntary team of arborists who are assisting Jim with his 5 year project to create natural tree features for Bechstein's and barbastelle bats. By using chainsaws to create different crevices and cavities within living trees, the team hope that they will be taken up by colonies of the two bat species which are present in the woodland Steve is visiting today in this episode. The...

Bats at RHS Wisley

January 26, 2022 05:00 - 22 minutes - 15.3 MB

S3E30 This week Steve is in Surrey at RHS Garden Wisley with Principal Entomologist Dr Andrew Salisbury. Andrew sits down with Steve in the brand new wildlife garden outside their new laboratory building to tell us about the work the RHS do and how we can improve our gardens for wildlife including bats.  This week we also have a piece of nature writing by James Gilbert. James creates 'thumbnail' pieces and tweets them out and he's created a longer piece especially for BatChat called "Made wi...

A bat call library with Martyn Cooke

January 12, 2022 05:00 - 26 minutes - 18.1 MB

S3E29 This week Steve joins Martyn Cooke outside a holiday cottage in Staffordshire as they set up a matrix of bat detectors to record the sound of Brandt's bats emerging from their roost before flying into the adjacent woodland. Martyn explains why he is recording the calls, why he's travelled all the way from Surrey to record these bats and what the calls will be used for. Steve finds out how an injured serotine bat got Martyn hooked on bats and they talk about the advances in automatic ba...

Jon Russ

December 29, 2021 05:00 - 33 minutes - 23 MB

S3E28 This week Steve is joined in a Derbyshire churchyard by Jon Russ who is an expert on bat echolocation calls. They discuss how Jon got into studying bat calls, his latest book on the subject and his passion for Nathusius’ pipistrelle bats. Jon's latest book "Bat Calls of Britain and Europe" is available from Pelagic Publishing and is aimed at anyone interested in bat echolocation. It contains introductory chapters to the subject as well as more advanced topics such as sound analysis. As...

Bats with Altitude - Rich Flight

December 15, 2021 05:00 - 39 minutes - 27.4 MB

S3E27 This week Steve is in the Lake District National Park with Ecologist and Chair of south Cumbria Bat Group Rich Flight. Rich published the findings of a study called "Bats with Altitude" in the journal British Island Bats in 2021 and he sits down with Steve to tell us about what inspired the project, what bats were found at over 500m on the mountainsides and how volunteers surveyed for bats in challenging upland conditions. Bats with Altitude paper (page 105) published in British Islan...

Children's books with Emma Reynolds

December 01, 2021 05:00 - 23 minutes - 16.2 MB

S3E26 This week Steve is at Chorlton Water Park Nature Reserve in Manchester with author and illustrator Emma Reynolds. Emma's debut author-illustrator book "Amara and the Bats" was published here in the UK in July 2021 and she sits down with Steve to tell us how the book has been received, what she thinks the future of children's books holds and what it was that inspired her to write a kids book about bats. Emma's website Amara and the Bats publisher website Buy your books and support yo...

Barbastelles at Paston Great Barn

November 17, 2021 05:00 - 29 minutes - 20.4 MB

S3E25 This week Steve is on the Norfolk coastline in the East of England visiting Jane Harris from the Norfolk barbastelle study group. Paston Great Barn dates back to 1581. It’s a huge thatched barn made of flint, brick and stone measuring 50 meters in length and about 10 meters wide. Despite it’s size, driving south along the coast road it’s very easy to miss as you pass its end flint wall and not until you glance in your rear view mirror do you get a feel for the expanse of the structure....

Gareth Jones - A lifetime of research

November 03, 2021 05:00 - 43 minutes - 30 MB

S3E24 BatChat is back for a third series! Steve is on the roof of the biological sciences building with Professor Gareth Jones where he talks to Steve about just some of the research he has undertaken in his lifetime with bats. They discuss the work famously done to separate the two pipistrelle species back in the 90's, what Gareth gets up to in his spare time and the unusual behaviour found in fruit bat species which won Gareth the Ig Nobel Prize! Please leave us a review if you can, it hel...

We're back with Season 3!

October 27, 2021 17:00 - 3 minutes - 2.44 MB

Hello everyone it’s Steve here from BatChat here to tell you that a brand new series is going to be along on Wednesday. I know it’s been a long wait since the last series but we’ve been working really hard to join our guests out in the field so that you don’t have to listen to any more Zoom calls! So all of our guests this series have been recorded on location. This is just a little teaser, to give you a little heads-up that were coming back with some wonderful guests starting on Wednesday N...

Bats in Churches with Barry Collins

March 03, 2021 05:00 - 47 minutes - 32.6 MB

S2E23 For the final episode of Series 2 we join Nottinghamshire Bat Group member Barry Collins at a Leicestershire Church where he talks to Steve about the works that were undertaken on the church to restore it whilst retaining the Natterer's bat colony living in the fabric of the building. Barry also discusses the importance of churches in the local community as well as how they're adapting to the 21st century and how he, along with dozens of other bat workers, are working with church commu...

Woodland Symposium

February 17, 2021 05:00 - 45 minutes - 31.4 MB

S2E22 The 2020 Woodland Symposium was hosted by BCT, six years after the inaugural symposium. It bought together landowners, ecologists, bat workers and professionals from the woodland and forestry industry to listen to talks from 15 speakers covering research, knowledge updates and case studies on woodlands and bats. We hear from three of those speakers as well as a couple of the 11 students who had been given a place at the conference by bursaries offered by the Back from the Brink project...

Chester Zoo - Twilight Zone

February 03, 2021 05:00 - 55 minutes - 38.4 MB

S2E21 Chester Zoo is the most visited zoo in the UK with over 2 million visitors a year. It's also a conservation and education charity committed to preventing extinction. The fruit bat forest in the Twilight Zone exhibition is a fantastic visitor experience; Steve joins Dave White, the manager of the Twilight Zone, who explains how it's also used as an insurance population for the endangered Rodrigues fruit bat Pteropus rodricensis which is only found on the island of Rodrigues. Dr Claire R...

Going Underground on a Hibernation Survey

January 20, 2021 05:00 - 24 minutes - 17.2 MB

S2E20 Steve joins Helen Ball and other members of Staffordshire Bat Group as they undertake a winter hibernation survey for the National Bat Monitoring Programme (NBMP). Recorded in February 2020 in the Staffordshire Peak District, they undertake the latest survey of disused lead mines searching for bats deep in torpor. Helen reveals what it's like to undertake the survey (it's a VERY steep hillside!) and what sort of things you're likely to find in old mine adits. Apart from the bats - lot...

Our CEO, Kit Stoner

January 06, 2021 05:00 - 27 minutes - 18.8 MB

S2E19 The Bat Conservation Trust is a small conservation charity but undertakes a vast amount of work in their aim to conserve bats. During the runup to Christmas, Steve spoke with their Chief Executive Officer, Kit Stoner, to find out what it's like to run a small but busy charity, the current challenges and whether she manages to get out and do bat work in her spare time after work!  Follow Kit on twitter Find out more about the upcoming British Bat Survey Discover the work we do Join ...

Sue Swift & friends at the Scottish Bat Conference

December 23, 2020 06:00 - 31 minutes - 21.5 MB

S2E18 In November 2019 before the word Coronavirus had become all-too familiar, the Scottish Bat Conference was taking place in Perth. In this episode Steve speaks to Liz Ferrell BCT's Scottish bat officer, Sue Swift who published the authoritative work on long-eared bats and Tracey Jolliffe who has an interest in zoonotic diseases and discusses bats and rabies.  Book your place at the 2021 Scottish Bat Conference here Find your local Scottish bat group here Follow Liz Ferrell on twitter ...

Devon Greater Horseshoe Bat Project with Helen Parr

December 09, 2020 05:00 - 40 minutes - 28.1 MB

S2E17 The weather has certainly got chilly in the last few days, but back in late October, it was still mild and Steve visited a bat colony which was still in residence in its summer roost. He meets up with Helen Parr, community engagement officer for the Devon Greater Horseshoe Bat Project. They discuss how the project has been received by the community over the last five years and what achievements its had whilst wandering around the countryside of the south-west, visiting the habitats tha...

Dr Winifred Frick - Bat Conservation International

November 25, 2020 05:00 - 46 minutes - 32.1 MB

S2E16 Winifred is the Chief Scientist at Bat Conservation International as well as an associate research professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In this episode, Steve finds out about the discovery Winifred made about the ecology of Pallid bats whilst undertaking her PhD out in the deserts and chats to her about her work as a key scientist in the efforts to research the effects of White-Nose Syndrome, informing long-term management actions....

Gardening for bats with Joel Ashton

November 11, 2020 05:00 - 36 minutes - 24.9 MB

S2E13 Remember seeing bats over your garden years ago and suddenly realised that they've vanished over time? Wildlife garden landscaper Joel Ashton reveals how you can help attract bats to your greenspace by greening up a fence and planting certain species to increase insect diversity which in turn will provide your local bats with a buffet! At the Bat Conservation Trust we have a vision of a world rich in wildlife where bats and people thrive together and Joel is helping achieve that vision...

Chris Packham

October 28, 2020 05:00 - 42 minutes - 29.3 MB

S2E14 A camping trip in the New Forest was the first sighting of bats that broadcaster, naturalist and writer Chris Packham had. He became the president of the Bat Conservation Trust in 2006 and in this episode recorded during the 2020 lockdown, Steve Roe asks Chris what it was about the Trust that made him want to become President. Chris tells us about the time he had serotine bats flying around his house whilst watching a European cup final and reveals some of the bat encounters he's had d...

Bats & Coronavirus

May 07, 2020 04:00 - 37 minutes - 25.9 MB

S1E13 In this bonus episode recorded during the UK lockdown, we have two guests on the show. Tom August is a scientist based at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and Lisa Worledge is Head of Conservation Services at the Bat Conservation Trust. They talk to Steve about the interest that bats are currently getting in the press around the origins of the current COVID-19 pandemic, what bats can teach us about future pandemics and how some bat species have been practicing social distancing ...

Bat Care

April 01, 2020 04:00 - 27 minutes - 19.3 MB

S1E12 This week we have two guests on the show. Hannah Van Hesteren is one of the Helpline Managers at the Bat Conservation Trust. She talks to Steve about the vital work the Helpline does each summer when it takes hundreds of calls each day from members of the public who have found an injured or grounded bat. Gail Armstrong was the recipient of the Pete Guest Award in 2019 for her outstanding practical contribution to bat conservation. Over the last 25 years, Gail estimates she's cared for...

Bats and Trees with Jim Mullholland

March 18, 2020 05:00 - 22 minutes - 15.5 MB

S1E11 Despite a number of our bats using trees as roost sites, we know surprisingly little about how bats use trees. In this episode Steve sits down with veteran tree expert Jim Mullholland from the Arboricultural Association and discusses what we still don't know about the ecology of bats and trees. Jim also touches on a project he's been working on recently using trail cameras as a surveillance technique to help understand this subject. Jim has a YouTube channel with a number of videos of...

Life as an Island Bat Group

March 04, 2020 05:00 - 26 minutes - 18.4 MB

S1E10 The British Isles have a large number of islands around its coasts and some of these have bat groups. In this episode Steve discusses the challenges of being an isolated voluntary group with Carol Williams who is  the secretary of the Isles of Scilly Bat Group and with Ani Binet who until recently was a resident on Jersey in the Channel Islands and an active member of the Jersey Bat Group. There is also some news hot off the press from the Isle of Man Bat Group. You can read more abo...

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