As part of Oxfordshire Great Big Green Week 2023 #ClimateActionOxfordshire residents of Nethercote held a walk to learn more about bats!
Nethercote provides natural habitat for wildlife and birds; we see the wildlife on a regular basis. Surveying and recording biodiversity can provide valuable information about habitats, plants, animals and natural processes in an area. Information such as the presence of species and habitats, the condition of habitats and the size of wildlife populations can be useful to identify protected areas, protected species and areas suitable for biodiversity enhancement as well as ensuring that the biodiversity is not adversely affected by human actions.
Bats play an essential role in the ecosystem, as well as pollinating plants and dispersing seeds they also help to control insects by feeding on them. Bats can tell us a lot about the condition of the ecosystems around us and as they are very sensitive to changes in the environment around us, monitoring their presence and numbers gives good indication for the wider health of the UK’s wildlife as the pressures they face are relevant to many other wildlife species. All bat species are protected by law in the UK because their numbers have declined so dramatically. Bats are hard to see with in the darkness, their calls indicate their presence but also identify their species. Bat calls are pitched too high a frequency for humans to hear naturally but they can be heard and recorded using a bat detector
Our walk enabled us to learn more about the life of bats as well as how to record our observations and engage in wider citizen science projects, such as those run by the Bat Conservation Trust