With the Big Wild Sleepout on the way, I’m taking a look at some of Wales’ favourite night-time wildlife.
Dark, devilish and mysterious - history has called bats many things. These nocturnal creatures have often stirred up feelings of mistrust or fear in cultures across the world, associated with death and the underworld from the UK to South America and beyond. They've even turned up as symbols of witchcraft in the works of Shakespeare, and were essential to Bram Stoker's infamous villain Count Dracula, aided in his blood-drinking obsession by the ability to transform into a bat*. Yet it's not all bad news for this night-time wanderer, considered lucky in parts of China and Poland and standing proud as the official symbol for three separate US states.
Beyond the mythology, the facts are just as magical. Here in the UK, we have around 18 different species of bat, ranging from the distinctive brown long-eared bat to the squash-faced barbastelle. Less distinctive, but no less charming, is the common pipistrelle. This tiny bat is quite a powerhouse – a single common pipistrelle can eat up to 3,000 gnats in a single night, despite weighing less than an ordinary pencil. It’s also, as its name suggests, one of the more common UK bats. If you’re lucky enough to see a bat whirring overhead at night, there’s a decent chance it’s the good old common pippistrelle.
Pipistrelle bats are among the most common in the UK.
Image: Chris Shields (rspb-images.com)
There’s also the noctule , the albatross of the UK bat world. Okay, so that may be an exaggeration – the noctule is around the size of a starling – but it’s 35cm wingspan outstrips all other UK bats. It doesn’t keep quiet about it, either, with a cry four times louder than the legal limit of UK nightclubs. Thankfully, this massive noise is at a frequency that cannot be heard by humans, as are most bat calls. It’s the reason many budding bat seekers use a special device that can track bat calls across the night sky.
Sadly, even those armed with the latest in bat detection technology may one day find it difficult to find anything. The truth is that bats, like much of our UK wildlife, are dying out. The common pipistrelle, for example, suffered a truly disturbing 70% decline between 1978 and 1993. Habitat destruction and loss of food supplies are two major factors, but there are things you can do to help, such as putting up batboxes; check out the links at the bottom of this post to help give bats a home.
Bat to the future - as habitats dwindle, batboxes are a lifeline for bats.
That good old common pipistrelle and the noisy noctule roam around Newport Wetlands and Ynys Hir, both places where the RSPB are holding their inspired Big Wild Sleepout events. As the losses wildlife face become more obvious by the day, it’s hugely important that we learn to understand and appreciate the wild creatures around us, allowing them to spark our imaginations and inspire us to help. The RSPB’s Big Wild Sleepout is a fantastic event for this, helping to put people in touch with the creatures that explore at night. To understand wildlife, we need to enter their world – and for our secretive, hidden creatures, that means heading out under the stars...
There's a whole night-time world out there to be discovered...
Image: Robin Boutell (rspb-images.com)
(*There’s actually only three types of blood-drinking bat in the entire world – but it does make a good story!)
To find out more about the Big Wild Sleepout and how you can get involved, visit
rspb.org.uk/sleepout
For more information about bats, and how to help the ones that live near you, check out the links below.
How to help –
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/wildlifegarden/atoz/b/batbox.aspx - RSPB information on batboxes
http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/birds-wildlife/wildlife/giving-nature-a-home/homes-for-nature/bat-box.html - Want to set up a batbox? Try this sturdy example from the RSPB online shop.
The Bat Conservation trust, linked above, has a wealth of information on how to help bats near you
More information –
http://www.bats.org.uk/ - Bat Conservation Trust
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/regulation/wildlife/species/bats.aspx - Natural England page on UK bats
http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/law/whatsintheroof/bats.aspx - What to do if there are bats in your roof.