\n The midge-munching mammals are among the most secretive of the UK\u2019s 19 bat species, often living alone in small cracks, crevices and other cave-like areas.\n<\/p>\n
\n The discovery has brought unforeseen costs to The Bug Parc, which must now have a full ecology report to check for more nesting bats.\n<\/p>\n
\n Martin French, expert entomologist and the invertebrate zoo\u2019s founder, said: “We could see that some of the trees in a copse at the far end of the parking area were old, dying and full of holes – ideal nesting holes for bats.\n<\/p>\n
\n Martin French runs the Bug Parc (Image: Sonya Duncan)\n<\/p>\n
\n “A tree survey has recommended that the trees be felled, so we commissioned a bat survey to see whether they were in fact occupied.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The survey was carried out on January 8, and sure enough, using an endoscope to test some of the holes, a Natterer\u2019s bat was discovered in a hole just five foot off the ground.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Natterer\u2019s bats, also known as red-armed bats, grow to a body length of up to 5cm, can have a 30cm wingspan and weigh between 7 to 12 grams \u2013 about the same as two teaspoons of sugar.\n<\/p>\n
\n Although they are found across most of the country, the Bats.org.uk website calls Natterer\u2019s bats a “scarce and poorly known species”.\n<\/p>\n
\n A full ecology report will include hiring a specialist 20-metre cherry picker for three days in May to search through the tree canopy.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr French has been quoted as much as \u00a31,200 per day for them and has called on help from local companies.\n<\/p>\n
\n “As a small business, we are looking to find the most cost-effective method to allow the three required surveys to be enabled,” he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Who would have thought helping our bat population would result in such high costs.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The hope is that, despite the recommendation being to fell the trees, we can keep the oldest stumps, make them a safe height, and strengthen them to allow the bats to continue to use the roosts.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The midge-munching mammals are among the most secretive of the UK\u2019s 19 bat species, often living alone in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-391907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391907","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=391907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}