Bats help measure state of UK wildlife

May 23 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

DATA on scores of bat roosts in the North East will be used to measure the health of the UK’s wildlife.

Yesterday – International Biodiversity Day – the Government announced that for the first time bat and wintering waterbird numbers will be among the official biodiversity indicators which are deployed to keep tabs on the state of the natural environment.

Bat species are some of the UK’s most widespread wild mammals but populations remain vulnerable, which is why they serve as a good indicator for the wider health of the UK’s wildlife.

Pressures faced by bats including landscape change, agricultural intensification, building development and habitat fragmentation are also relevant to many other wildlife species.

Noel Jackson, vice-president of the Durham Bat Group, yesterday welcomed the inclusion of bats as an indicator species.

“Bats are the litmus paper for the environment.

“They eat insects and so are an indicator of how insect populations are doing, which in turn depend on plants so it is a snapshot of the eco-system,” he said.

Durham Bat Group, which was set up in 1982, monitors populations in County Durham, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Gateshead, and Hartlepool.

It has located around 800 bat sites and surveys 40 sites with the information feeding into the national Bat Conservation Trust, which will supply the Government figures.

At one of the biggest survey sites, a former school in Middleton-in-Teesdale, a colony of whiskered bats which numbered around 800 in the 1980s has now declined to about 300.

Mr Jackson said that one of the dangers facing bats in the North East was warmer winters.

“Bats hibernate in winter because there is no insect food. But if warmer winter temperatures encourage them to wake up, then they wake up to starve, which is a disaster.”

Also published yesterday was the list of habitats and species of principal importance for the conservation of biodiversity in England.

The hen harrier has been included on the list in light of the severe declines this bird has suffered.

A 24-hour watch is currently safeguarding the only known harrier nest in the North East, which is in Upper Tynedale in Northumberland.

Bats eat insects and so are an indicator of how insect populations are doing