Community volunteers to take part in bat study
Posted on 21 May 2010
All 16 species of bats in the UK are protected by law, and their populations are vulnerable due to pollution, persecution and loss of habitat.
The public will get access to fun training days, use of equipment and they will have the satisfaction of knowing their time and efforts will be contributing to usable data!
Nancy Irwin
Nancy Irwin has helped to organise a series of workshops to train community volunteers to collect data to monitor long term trends in bat populations in the York area. Recording the animals' distribution is helping scientists to model and predict bats’ habitat requirements. This information can then be used to make informed management decisions.
She said: “This is the first in a series of training days that we are arranging to engage the public in monitoring and collecting data on bats in York. In the Year of Biodiversity, it is an opportunity to engage the wider community on the issue of endangered species.”
“The public will get access to fun training days, use of equipment and they will have the satisfaction of knowing their time and efforts will be contributing to usable data!”
The first of the training days, on 22 May in the University’s Department of Biology, will involve experts from the Zoological Society of London teaching participants how to survey bats using a bat detector strapped to their car.
Further workshops will take place on 5 June, 19 June and 3 July. Philip Biggs, of the Bat Conservation Trust, will be among the experts training volunteers to use a range of surveying methods.
The information they collect will go towards national field and water surveys, and provide data for PhD students at York as well as contributing to the North Yorkshire Bat Group and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust databases.
To take part in the workshops, register at yorkbatgroup.eventbrite.com
Later in the year, a series of bat walks will take place in locations across the city. More details can be found on the North Yorkshire Bat Group web site at www.nybats.org.uk
Notes to editors:
- The events are sponsored by the University of York outreach program, in collaboration with the North Yorkshire Bat Group and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
- Bat detectors and equipment to facilitate this project are on loan from the IBATS program, BCT, Park rangers of the City of York, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and the University of York. Bat detectors on loan from the NYBG have been provided by a grant from the Big Lottery Fund.
- The Indicator Bats Program (iBats) is a partnership between The Zoological Society of London and The Bat Conservation Trust, working in partnership with a number of national NGOs. It is an international bat biodiversity monitoring project designed to track changes in global diversity. More information at www.ibats.org.uk
- Nancy Irwin is funded by Daphne Jackson Fellowship sponsored by the Natural Environment Research Council.
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