Interested in bats? Working towards your bat licence? This 2-day face-to-face course will cover many of the essential elements required to get a bat licence, as well as giving you a good general grounding on everything you need to know about bats.  This is an intensive introduction for future bat workers or people with a general interest in bats.  This introductory level 2-day course will be taught by an experienced bat ecologist from Ecology Training UK and includes an evening bat walk.

Course Description:

Day 1: Bat Ecology and Conservation

• Bat taxonomy and relationships to other mammals
• Bat species in the UK
• Bat biology, including adaptations, life strategies, senses, and physiological specialisations.
• Bat food and feeding, echolocation
• Bat seasons and diurnal rhythms, including social behaviour, colony formation, roost sites,
  hibernation, and maternity colonies.
• Bat conservation – threats to bats, including habitat loss, loss of roosts, pesticides and
  persecution
• Bats and the law – legal status and licences
• Training for your bat license
• Bat activity surveys: transects and emergence surveys – how to do them, health and safety
  and planning
• Evening bat walk and use of basic bat detectors

Day 2: Bat Survey Techniques

• Assessing buildings – bat potential, bat signs, seasonal use
• Health and safety – in and around buildings, night work
• Bat droppings and other bat signs
• Bat species in the UK, their habitats and distributions.
• Bat ID in the hand using real preserved bats.

Location:

The course will be held at St Luke’s Church Rooms, 32 School Lane, Countess Wear, Exeter, EX2 3LB. Venue directions are provided in the Directions document within the course, after booking.

What to bring:

You will need to bring a packed lunch and water bottle. Further details about appropriate equipment and clothing are provided in the Joining Instructions document within the course, after booking.

Timings:

The course will start at 10:00 am on Day 1. The exact timings of the evening activities on
Day 1 will vary according to sunset time, and we will discuss specifics on the day of the
course. However, as an indication, at about 5:30 pm we will stop the classroom session and then
we can have a meal at the pub next door (this is optional). We will re-convene at a suitable time,
depending on sunset time for the bat walk in the evening (also optional). The course will finish at
around 10:30 pm at the latest.

“Jam packed with useful and interesting information for anyone starting a career in bat ecology”

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected]