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Bats moving into new home just weeks after opening

12/10/2009 14:39:21

First bat spotted at the new bat house. Photos © Tim Dackus.

WWT bat house has promising start
October 2009. When the Berkeley bat house was opened on 14 September 2009, experts couldn't be sure how long it would take its intended residents to set up roost. But hopes have been raised by photos showing a bat roosting on it just a few weeks after the official unveiling.

WWT London Wetland Centre
The bat, thought to be a pipistrelle, was photographed roosting under the eaves of the bat house. Staff at WWT London Wetlands Centre are keeping an eye out for more bats using the house. Later in the year when the bats may use the bat house to hibernate, licensed bat inspectors from the Bat Conservation Trust will check the interior of the specially-designed structure.

Soprano pipistrelle bats and Daubenton's bats
The Berkeley bat house is an architect-designed home for bats - specifically soprano pipistrelle bats and Daubenton's bats - set within the grounds of one of the most important foraging grounds for bats in London, the WWT London Wetlands Centre in Barnes. It's hoped that the bat house will encourage two of the most prevalent species to roost at the site.

Background to the Berkeley bat house

The bat house is based on designs by Jorgen Tandberg,
of Oslo, and Yo Murata, of Tokyo, who met while studying
at the Architectural Association's school in London. A
competition to design the bat house was inspired by award
winning artist Jeremy Deller. He won the Turner Prize with
Memory Bucket, which documented a trip he made across
Texas and included film of 3 million bats leaving a Texas
cave.

Among the building's innovative features are its use of
Hemcrete, a climate-friendly alternative to concrete, which
is made from hemp and lime and ‘breathes', so keeping
the roosts at the right temperature. Advice on the best
designs and materials came from the
Bat Conservation Trust.

The building results from an open competition initiated by
the Turner Prize-winning artist, Jeremy Deller and supported
by a partnership involving Arts Council England, the Bat
Conservation Trust, the Mayor of London, Plus Equals, the
RSA Arts and Ecology Centre and WWT, with sponsorship
from The Berkeley Group. © Teri Pengilley

Large colonies
The soprano pipistrelle bat was only discovered to be a separate species from the common pipistrelle in the mid-1990s, making it the most recently discovered UK mammal. Soprano pipistrelles form large colonies of over 100 bats and as such need large unlit areas in which to forage. The Daubenton's bat is known as the water bat because it feeds by skimming low over the water picking off insects on the wing.

The Berkeley bat house will not only provide shelter for the bats but give WWT researchers and experts from partner organisations an opportunity to study them. Research into soprano pipistrelles is still in comparatively early stages because their existence has only recently been proven, so data on the conditions they need to shelter, breed and feed will be invaluable.

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