The Importance Of Bat Surveys

By Author: Mary Porter
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If you require bat surveys to be carried out then they have to be undertaken by a licensed ecologist who is experienced in this line of work. Bat surveys are usually carried out when people want to develop a particular piece of land, area or building. The bat surveys assess if bats are present in an area and what species of bat are present. Bats feed at night and roost during the day so are often hard to detect. They are most commonly found in buildings, under bridges, quarries, trees, cliffs and caves. They tend to like dark and quiet spaces away from lots of noise. Bats will forage for food in woodland, parkland, farmland, hedgerows, wetlands, waterways, gardens and well lit open spaces at night time. There are many different methods for undertaking bat surveys and wildlife surveys and the method used will depend on the area that is being surveyed.
Walkover bat surveys are used for assessing if bats are inside buildings and will look for any evidence of bats such as droppings and food remains and will also try to find access points where the bats are entering ...
... the building. Ecologists will often use bat detectors during bat surveys and these can pick up bat calls at a frequency which they can hear. Walkover bat surveys are also carried out in tree and woodland area to look for signs of bat inhabitancy. Bats are a protected species and under the wildlife and countryside act 1981 bats cannot be intentionally injured or captured to be killed or disturbed. Bat surveys will highlight where bats are present and recommend ways to migrate the bats. If bats are not migrated then the planned work cannot go ahead as this would disturb the bats.
As well as bat surveys other wildfire surveys include great crested newt, reptile, bird, dormice, badger, water vole, otter and hedgerow wildlife surveys as all of these creatures are protected species that must be looked after and not moved illegally from their habitats.