Bats - the only true flying mammal
Bats are rather like marmite – you either hate them or love them. And if you are trying to restore an old building they can prove a veritable nightmare.
Bats are fascinating animals and the only true flying mammal. They actually use their forelimbs adapted as wings and if you watch them on a summer’s evening you can see they are far better acrobats in the air than birds. There are over 1200 known species of bats in the world and they account for more than a quarter of mammal species in the UK.
Most bats are insectivores and a large number are fruit-eaters although there are a few that eat other animals and of course vampire bats feed on blood. Bats are mostly nocturnal and roost in caves and other refuges.
Bats have their advantages and disadvantages!
Good
They help with pollination
They help with dispersing seeds
Bat dung can be mined as guano and used as a fertilizer
They eat insect pests so reduce the need for pesticide
Some cultures eat them
But
They are the natural reservoirs of many pathogens such as rabies
They are highly mobile, long-lived and social so they spread disease readily
Bats are protected in the UK, some would say beyond what is reasonable, especially if you consider the large numbers living here. If you have ever wanted to restore or use an old building, almost the most difficult hurdle to get over is the bat permission.
It is a matter of planning law that you will have to have a survey undertaken to assess if there are bats present prior to planning permission being granted. Cross your fingers that there aren’t any of these little creatures anywhere near – it is not enough that they are not roosting in the specific building but if they are in the neighbourhood beware.
If it is found that you are in the batty area it can take months and months to pass all the barriers – putting up boxes, changing plans to adapt to flight paths etc etc and the cost is enormous. People have to come and count bats at dawn and dusk on several occasions, they have to write expensive reports and you have to pay for everything to do with the whole affair; inspectors come from public bodies and on and on it goes. Many good projects must have been in jeopardy over the enormous cost of protecting bats.
We found to our cost that, although no bats were found on our property, there might be a chance that they would like to come. So “better safe than sorry” was the final decision. Months of time lost and literally thousands of pounds but still no sight of a bat near any of our beautiful bat boxes!
