World of Bats

Welcome to the World of Bats

All UK bats and their roosts are protected by law. It is illegal to harm or disturb or deliberately disturb their roosts without first seeking advice from your local Statutory Nature Conservation Organisation.

Bats are mammals and as such are warm blooded, have fur or hair on their bodies and feed on their mother’s milk for the first few weeks of their life. However bats are the only mammals that are capable of true flight.

Bat’s wings can be likened to our arms and hands but have extra long fingers with skin stretching between the body and fingers to form the wing membrane. Only the thumb remains free which is used for grooming.

Seventeen species of bat have been identified in the UK, four of which have been seen in the country park.

The smallest bat found in the UK, and the country park, is the pipistrelle which is around 4cm long and weighs around 5g. (less than the weight of a £1 coin).

The largest bat species in the UK, and the country park, is the noctule with a body length of 6-8.2cm and a weight of 19-40g.

This is still small compared to the world’s largest bat, the Kalong or Javanese flying fox, which is a fruit eating bat found in East Asia, which has a wingspan of almost 2 metres!

All native UK bats eat insects and the majority catch and eat them in mid air. Amazingly the tiny pipistrelle can eat over 3000 insects in one night!

Bats are not blind but during the hours of darkness they fly using echolocation i.e. locating objects by echo. They emit high pitched sounds, which us humans cannot hear, and instinctively measure how long it takes for the noise to bounce back from the objects in their way.

Bats don’t make nests but choose places to roost such as hollow trees, caves or buildings. UK native bats hibernate in winter as there are few insects to be found at that time of year. To use less energy their heartbeat, breathing rate and body temperature drop.

The four bats species identified in the country park are: