Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2012 | Page 88
COUNTRY LIFE
Charmed by
Bats are more common than you might
think, and some are quite easy to spot
if you know where to look. Richard
Grogan, the Wildlife Trust’s Head of
Conservation on the Isle of Wight,
identifies some of these charming
mammals.
Your local
Wildlife Trust
The Hampshire and Isle of
Wight Wildlife Trust works to
create a better future for wildlife
and wild places in Hampshire
and the Island. As the leading
local wildlife conservation
charity, it looks after 57 wildlife
reserves, has 28,000 members
and 1,000 volunteers. The Trust
manages its own land and advises
other landowners how to manage
their land with wildlife in mind.
Staff and volunteers also carry
out surveys and gather data to
monitor how our local wildlife
is doing.
Beechcroft House, Vicarage
Lane, Curdridge, Hampshire
SO32 2DP
Tel: 01489 774400
www.hwt.org.uk
88
www.visitislandlife.com
Bats are the only mammals capable
of powered flight, which they achieve
with wings formed from skin stretched
across their specialised elongated hand
bones. They are classified scientifically as
Chiroptera, which means ‘hand-wing’.
Feeding on insects at night, they live in
a dark world, away from competition
with day-flying birds but exposed to
different challenges. Their eyes are small,
so to find their way at night, they have
developed a way of ‘seeing with sound’
– known as echolocation. By emitting
high-pitched calls as they fly, bats can
use the echoing sound waves to navigate
in darkness and locate prey. Bats make
their homes in dark, cool places such as
trees, caves and houses, and hibernate
over the winter due to the lack of their
insect food.
Bats in Hampshire and the
Isle of Wight
Fourteen bat species are regularly
recorded in the two counties. Here is
a selection of the common and not so
common species
Common pipistrelle and soprano
pipistrelle
These two very similar species can be
distinguished by the frequency of their
calls. Very small bats, they occupy roof
spaces, trees and bat boxes and are the
most commonly recorded species. It has
been found that, as well as calls, the two
species can be separated by the habitat
they prefer to feed around. The soprano
pipistrelle likes to forage near water,
whereas the common pipistrelle searches
all over for food.
Serotine
This large bat is found in roof spaces
of older buildings and occasionally tree
holes. It forages in lowland pasture,
parkland, woodland edge and hedgerows,
and feeds on large beetles, larger moths
and flies. It is restricted to southern
Britain and south Wales.
Noctule
A medium-sized woodland bat, the
noctule prefers to roost in woodpecker
holes or rot holes in trees. It feeds on
beetles, flies and moths in pastures next
to woodland and over water. It occurs in
England, Wales and southern Scotland.