Females stay close to home whilst males have an adventurous time

The recent radio tracking of Greater Horseshoe bats carried out by the East Devon AONB Partnership in the Branscombe/Shute/Coly valley areas has brought to light some interesting bat behaviour.  Greater Horseshoe bats are nationally one of our rarer bats and the Looking Out for Bats Project is working to find out more about how the bats behave in the summer. They can then work with landowners to carry out habitat and roost enhancements so that the bats and their young can continue to thrive in the area.

Both male and female bats had tiny transmitters attached to their backs These emitted small pulses which could be detected from up to 2 kms away with specialist equipment. This allowed Dr Fiona Mathews and her team of volunteers (who provided over 2000 hours of night-time volunteering!), to follow the movements of the bats as they flew along the hedges and woodland edges. The female bats were found to stay mostly in the valleys of Branscombe, feeding on moths and beetles and not venturing further than two and a half miles from their maternity roost. The males, however, were found to travel much further. One flew and fed along the cliffs towards Sidmouth and spent some time in the Byes before returning to Branscombe before dawn. This represents a straight line journey of over 14 miles – and that does not allow for swooping and diving after insects. Another male was tracked all the way to Offwell.

“The reason that the Greater Horseshoes live in these areas is because of the mosaic of hedgerows and woodland edges that have been created by generations of farmers”, said Pete Youngman, the AONB Project Officer. “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 summer roost that must exist somewhere in the area, because 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 (www.eastdevonaonb.org.uk).

The project is funded by SITA, with additional contributions from East Devon District Council, Devon County Council, Axe Vale and District Conservation Society, Sid Vale Association and Natural England. The SITA Trust makes awards through the Landfill Communities Fund. SITA Trust provides funding to improve biodiversity and the environment around landfill sites throughout England. SITA Trust receives its funding from the waste management company, SITA UK.