\n The Friends of St Peter\u2019s Church in the Grove on Portland have been carrying out a number of surveys on the derelict building as they were building a case to put in a community bid in to purchase the property.\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite the church being sold to a mystery buyer, surveys from the group during their efforts have just revealed compelling information about the property- including its current inhabitants.\n<\/p>\n
\n (Image: Helena Barry)\n<\/p>\n
\n Friends’ members had noticed discarded moth wings on the floor and bat droppings on the pews of the church, and a preliminary roost survey has found that DNA from the droppings has revealed the common pipistrelle bat, the serotine bat and the grey long-eared bat were found at the site.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to records, the grey long-eared bat is very rare, with only around 1,000 found in the UK, with most in the south. Locals also say this could be the first recorded evidence of the species on Portland.\n<\/p>\n
\n (Image: Helena Barry)\n<\/p>\n
\n Helena Barry of the Friends group said: \u201cIt won\u2019t be a nasty surprise for the intending purchaser. All species are protected and roosts can often not be disturbed.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe already knew there were bats there, but it is nice knowing exactly what is there rather than jusy seeing the bat poo over the pews and moth wings.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt has really given us the opportunity to learn as much as we can before we lose access to the church.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe would love the chance to cooperate and collaborate with the intending purchaser.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Bat droppings on church pews(Image: Helena Barry)\n<\/p>\n
\n Steve Christmas, of the Portland Association, said: “When the results were revealed we checked the Dorset Mammal Atlas and saw that it was not recorded on the island before.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It’s exciting to find such a rare species as there are only around 1,000 in the country. The critical thing is that this was identified through the DNA analysis of droppings as there are two types of long eared bats, which even experts struggle to tell apart.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It’s quite possible there are others on the island and it means we should be looking at other sites using DNA analysis to reassess what species we have here.”\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the Bat Conservation Trust, the species is a very rare medium sized bat, and is one of only two long-eared species in the UK. They are known to eat months, flies and small beetles with numbers quite low.\n<\/p>\n
\n In England, the species are restricted to a few colonies in Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, Devon and Somerset.\n<\/p>\n
\n The trust says there are no specific conservation management plans for the bat despite the species rarity, due to both a lack of information on its behaviour and ecological requirements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Friends of St Peter\u2019s Church in the Grove on Portland have been carrying out a number of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-208667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}