This course on Bats and Developments is designed to give ecological consultants a good knowledge of how to deal with and mitigate for bats on developments. Bats are frequently encountered during developments, so it’s important that Ecologists have a firm understanding of what to do when there is a possibility of finding bats. This course will help you to give mitigation advice to developers or improve your knowledge of bats and developments for those working towards their bat licence.

Bats and Developments is taught by Principal Ecologist Sue Searle who has done over 70 European Protected Species Licences and has over 20 years of experience working with bats. The course is delivered as a recorded webinar in video format.

Playing time 4 hours 20 mins.    

Course content:

• Understanding when mitigation is required.
• Mitigating for roost loss, including different roost types (e.g. maternity, hibernation etc)
• Mitigating for loss of habitat – e.g. foraging areas or commuting routes
• Species-specific mitigation (e.g. for horseshoes, long-eareds, pipistrelles etc)
• Case studies and discussions regarding successful and unsuccessful mitigation
• Useful references

Here’s what our students are saying:

Sue’s experience and enthusiasm for the subject was clear, it was great to have an insider’s knowledge about mitigation techniques, what works and what doesn’t, how to communicate with contractors, practicalities of particular mitigation methods, etc. She provided info I wouldn’t find in a manual or textbook and delivered it in an engaging way. Having the video available to complete in sections and being able to complete training flexibly around my workload was great.

Lucy Cater

Sue seemed very experienced and knowledgeable and clearly cares about the subject and species she’s worked with. The real-life examples and case studies given were very interesting, too. If you want a flexible self-paced course with a great tutor this course is a good investment!

Lucy Cater

Enjoyed the course. A good introduction to bats and developments. Covered range of species and real world mitigation examples.

Simon Conchie

The course is a well-structured and comprehensive introduction to developments and their impact upon bats. A great amount of interesting information relating to the subject is covered. This can easily be re-watched where needed, making it an excellent resource, in addition to being a great way of learning about this area of bat conservation and surveying. Highly recommended.

David

Liked everything about it

Graham

I liked the course, it was very comprehensive. I’m surprised how much I enjoyed the online elements of the course, I thought I would do better in a face to face course but honestly being able to go at my own pace is really working for me as I can spend time on the bits I find tricky as they come up rather than making a note to look things up later… I like the YouTube videos, being able to pause or even speed up the video to match my pace works well for me. I do feel like I learnt a lot. I would 100% recommend the course to others

SC

The course was enjoyable and informative. I found it particularly helpful in how flexible the study time was. You could do one module and then leave it a day or two when you had more time. It has also helped my career prospects.

Tim

ETUK is such wonderful and exciting resource. I came across an advertisement in British Wildlife. I appreciate how generous and comprehensive the information is. It’s very empowering to feel I can actually gain the tools to help to make an impact.

Anna

Flexibility and easy to follow layout.

Michael

ETUK- has really given me a step up into the ecology sector. I feel confident and motivated to take my career development in this direction, particularly in bat work, this course has given me the foundations to achieve that. Thank you 🙂

Georgina

A career change in your 40’s its quite a daunting prospect, and even though I had completed lots of self study, small courses and training- I knew there were likely a few gaps in my knowledge, so doing a full structured course made good sense. Whilst some of the content was quite familiar, I was surprised by just how big some of the knowledge gaps were – it really boosted my confidence studying the modules and realising why they were so important. It is a great course that I would recommend to anyone wanting to qualify in Conservation, and has certainly helped me in my new career working as part of a landscape recovery project team

Bill Bradshaw