Brandt's, Whiskered and Alcathoe bats: My MSc research: September 2013

Saturday 28 September 2013

I'm running for bat poo!

A lovely woodland on a beautiful evening
(Photo: Philip Brown)

Tonight, (Saturday 28^th September) I will be surveying at woodland number 45, my last site. It will be the end of a very long but very very enjoyable summer. I’ve met lots of interesting people, visited some lovely woodlands, seen nearly the full range of UK bat species and caught well over 250 bats!

The previous blog takes us up to August Bank Holiday, but don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about the sites I’ve surveyed since then, I’ll be posting about my activities between the end of August and now over the coming weeks.

I have collected droppings from Brandt’s, Whiskered and Alcathoe bats from up and down the country and various people have been kind enough to send me poo from bats that they have caught. I now need to get all of that poo analysed to work out exactly which species I have caught. Unfortunately I have been unable to secure funding to cover these costs which will be in the region of £2000-£2500 (I’m still waiting for some droppings to be sent to me and a couple of quotes to come back before I can work out an exact figure). Some bat groups have very kindly offered to pay for records from their counties and some individuals have agreed to pay for the analysis of droppings that they have sent to me, but this still leaves me a long way short of my total!

Is it a Brandt's, Whiskered or Alcathoe?
(Photo: Andy Shurbourne)

To try and cover at least some of the remaining costs I am going to be raising money by getting sponsorship for running the Leicester Half Marathon on Sunday 13^th October. If you would like to sponsor me I would be really grateful. Any amount is welcome and if you want to sponsor me through a company or organisation you would be mentioned in presentations and publications where appropriate.

In terms of where your money goes, in a "£5 will feed a family of six for a week", or
"£15 will buy exercise books for a whole school", kind of way, around £30 will cover the cost of analysis of one dropping.

If you are unaware as to why I am analysing bat poo and what this is all about have a look at the earlier blogs: The stage is set – August 16^th, and Poo Tastic – August 18^th. If you’ve not got time to read them, here are my research aims in a very small nutshell:

I am looking to describe the distribution of a new bat species to the UK and need to analyse the poo to check which species I have as this new bat species looks very very very similar to two other bat species.

If you would like to sponsor me please visit http://doodle.com/3gdu7dfy3phrsrkg click how much you would like to sponsor and enter your name and how I know you (e.g. Family, *** Bat Group, Friend, Volunteer at *** Wood) so I can contact you once I have completed the half marathon to collect sponsorship. If I do not know you, or am not likely to have your email address please send an email to philip.brown@bristol.ac.uk so I can get in contact with you to collect sponsorship. If you are wondering why I am not doing this through Just Giving or a similar donations page it is because “Phil’s Bat Poo Fund” is not a registered charity!

Bungeeing a tree out of the way to make
space for the harp trap
(Photo: Nicola Powell)

The half marathon is two weeks away now. Up until this point my training has been:

a) Walking multiple miles around woodlands every night,

b) Carrying heavy bat catching equipment to and from my car multiple times a day,

c) Occasionally wrestling with a tree to bend it out of the way to create the ideal space for my trap.

d) One six mile run with my dad last Tuesday before a survey, after which my calves were so tight they felt like they were going to snap!

I’m not quite sure how I am going to cope with 13 miles! I’d better get busy training over these next two weeks!

Keep checking back to see how my training is going (and how I did, once complete), how my surveys in September went and to see what sort of results I am getting from my data!

I am studying for a self-funded MSc at the University of Bristol with equipment and support from the Bat Conservation Trust http://www.bats.org.uk/ and training and guidance from Daniel Whitby of AEWC Ltd. If you would like to contact me about my research please email: philip.brown@bristol.ac.uk

Saturday 7 September 2013

A record number of bats...

Cheeking the breeding status by looking for the size of
the nipples
(Photo:Graham Warnes)

I was off to Northamptonshire at the start of the week to survey two woodlands, one close to a water body and one site away from water. The away from water site was full of old wild cherry trees and lots of badger droppings with cherry seeds in! At this site, amongst other things, we caught 10 Natterers, which is a record for the number of one species I’ve caught on any night this summer. At the other site in Northamptonshire we got a good diversity of species and caught no more than two of any species. We also caught a potential Brandt’s, Whiskered or Alcathoe bat.

Is it a Brandt's, Whiskered or Alcathoe?
(Photo: Jack Riggall)

I then surveyed my first site in Warwickshire. If the cherry tree woodland was the home of Natterers bats, this woodland was the home of Noctules. We caught three Noctules in addition to five other species (see the post "Getting on well in Wytham and Wiltshire" from August 23^rd for more information about Noctules).

Spread Eagle
(Photo: Jack Riggall)

After three reasonably successful nights trapping, I then had by far, my worst night. A storm was threatening all evening, the woodland was on a steep hillside and we only caught one bat. This, as if to follow the theme of the previous night was also a Noctule. This was my first site in Nottinghamshire, let hope the other Notts sites are more successful.

Saturday 24^th August was International Bat Night, but after rain threatening all of the previous night and never materialising, it looked almost certain to rain so I had to cancel the survey. So far I have been very lucky with the weather and only had to cancel this one so far. I have only been properly rained on twice and on both of these occasions it was right at the end of the survey (there has been the odd light shower during other surveys but nothing to halt proceedings). Fingers crossed there are plenty more dry nights between now and the end of September.

Processing a bat with members of the Leicestershire
and Rutland Bat Group
(Photo: Jack Riggall)

Sunday 25^th August has been one of my best nights trapping so far, we caught 18 bats (my previous record was 17) of 8 or 9 species (I say 8 or 9 as we caught two Brandt’s/Whiskered/Alcathoe bats which may turn out to be the same or different species after DNA analysis). This woodland has a good structure with a variety of tree species, a small reservoir in the middle and is surrounded by acid and heath grassland which is managed by grazing long horn cattle.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

Nice food, not so nice weather and a real mixed bag in terms of bat catching success

A brief description of my time in Herefordshire would go something along the lines of: as the food got better, the bat catching got better! Monday afternoon I got to my site, had a look around, decided where to put my traps and then went for dinner at a nearby Wetherspoons pub, they didn’t have the fish and chips I ordered so I had a burger, which was ok but nothing great. That evening we only caught five bats which is one of my lowest haul of bats I’ve had so far this summer.

Our visitor for the evening, a Smooth Newt
(Photo: Denise Foster)

Monday night I stayed in the spare room of my main contact for the area. She lives in a lovely cottage and the room I was staying in had beautiful views of the countryside and Welsh mountains in the distance. On Tuesday morning she made bacon and egg for breakfast, then for lunch she gave me what was essentially a huge ploughman’s. My tank was full and I certainly needed the energy that evening from the food consumed during the day. The first bat we caught was a Lesser Horseshoe. This was the first one of these bats I’ve seen and handled so I was pretty excited. It flew into the trap before we had switched the lure on, so it was a good start to the survey which continued in the same vein. We caught 12 bats in total and also had an unexpected visitor. A Smooth Newt strolled into the middle of our processing point to say hello!

On Wednesday I made my way to my parents’ house in Leicester and surveyed a woodland on the edge of Rutland Water, a massive reservoir created in the 70’s in the middle of the smallest county in the country. Unfortunately there was a strong wind blowing across the water and there were not many insects about or many bats in the traps or even on the detectors.

Just one of the 17 bats caught on
Derbyshire/Leicestershire border:
A Noctule just before release
(Photo:Steven Roe)

Thursday was far more successful, this time on the Leicestershire/Derbyshire border. We caught a record 17 bats three of which were my target species. I was privileged enough to be driven around the site on a little buggy by the estate manager which made transporting the equipment and getting around the site a lot quicker and easier. Just as we were about to start packing away at the end of the survey the heavens opened and everyone got soaked. With the buggy we managed to keep most of the equipment dry as well as the bats that threw themselves into the traps at the end of the survey.

One of the three bats that we took droppings from for
DNA analysis to confirm if it is Brandt's, Whiskered
or Alcathoe bat
(Photo: Steven Roe)

On Friday I certainly could have done with the buggy from Thursday night. There were only two of us to carry the equipment and we had a long walk across two fields, then into and through the woodland to where I wanted to set up the traps. During the survey we didn’t catch much and the walk back to the car with the equipment was made even harder, as this time it was all up hill.