{"id":761084,"date":"2026-09-05T18:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T18:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/761084\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T18:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T18:32:16","slug":"seaham-bat-detectorist-concerned-by-decline-in-bat-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/761084\/","title":{"rendered":"Seaham bat detectorist concerned by decline in bat numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A bat detectorist from Seaham is concerned the bat population in his area is declining year on year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Passionate conservationist Desmond Consitt first began using a bat detector 15 years ago, using the device to listen to the mammals&#8217; unique, high-frequency clicking sounds and record them as they fly around in the dark.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He describes the experience as transformative: &#8220;It is like watching a black and white picture &#8211; as soon as you put the bat detector on and you can hear them, it becomes a colour picture.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But he warned: &#8220;You used to see more bats in Seaham than now, but I don&#8217;t know why that is.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I still enjoy it, and the wildlife you can find around here is fantastic,&#8221; said Consitt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I would encourage anyone to get a detector and have a listen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;They make subtle clicks at first, and as it finds its way it clicks faster and faster.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bat detectorist from Seaham is concerned the bat population in his area is declining year on year.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-761084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761084","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=761084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}