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The Bat Conservation Trust

The Bat Conservation Trust is the only national organisation solely devoted to the conservation of bats and their habitats in the UK. It runs a national helpline to provide advice and information on bats.

The Bat Helpline receives more than 9,000 calls a year. Tel: 0845 1300 228 (local rate) or visit www.bats.org.uk .

Huge boost for Bat Conservation in the UK
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has announced an award of £596,000 for ‘England Count Bat', a four-year project run by the Bat Conservation Trust, which will help conserve and record England's dwindling but precious bat population.

Chris Packham, Conservationist, Broadcaster and President of the Bat Conservation Trust, said: ‘It is fantastic that the Heritage Lottery Fund is supporting England Count Bat. We believe everyone should have the chance to learn more about bats and to help these amazing creatures, and this project will make that happen.'

England Count Bat (Who thought that name up?)
The ‘England Count Bat' project will involve a number of bat conservation activities which will help to open up the fascinating and sometimes hidden world of bats to a wider and more diverse range of people. 168 educational events - such as bat walks, bat monitoring programmes, talks, road shows and arts and crafts activities - will involve thousands of volunteers and help them to learn more about the importance of these gentle mammals and how they can be best protected in the future.

UK Bat facts

* There are currently 17 species of bats in the UK.
* Bats and their roosts are all protected by national and European law due to the dramatic decrease in their numbers.
* Bats make up one-third of the UK mammalian biodiversity.
* Bats are unique to the natural heritage as they are the only true flying mammal and are a crucial part of the UK's delicately balanced biodiversity.
* Operating at the top of the food chain, bats keep in check the numbers of insects active between the hours of dusk and darkness when birds are largely absent. Their role is increasingly important as our climate warms-up and insect numbers increase - a single pipistrelle bat can eat 3,000 insects in the evening whilst a colony of bats eats millions of insects over the summer months.
* Bats only have one baby at a time and can live up to 30 years.
* Bats are more closely related to people than mice.
* The term ‘blind as a bat' is totally inaccurate - bats can see but mainly use a sonar system called ‘echolocation'. This is above the range of human hearing, but can be heard by people using a ‘bat detector'.

Bat conservation regulations

The Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations1994 (otherwise known as the Habitats Regulations) make it an offence to damage or destroy a breeding site or resting place of any bat, or to deliberately capture, kill or disturb a bat. Most development and maintenance works affecting bats and/or roosts e.g. bridge/tree maintenance works, demolition, barn conversions, works to churches etc. therefore require a Habitats Regulations Licence for work to take place legally.

Bats in the UK

There are 17 species of bat in the UK, seven of which are priority species for the UK's Biodiversity Action Plan. BCT is lead partner for five of these species (lesser horseshoe, barbastelle, Bechstein's, common pipistrelle and soprano pipistrelle).
Bats account for almost a third of UK mammal species and are indicators of a green and healthy environment, as they use all aspects of the landscape.

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