Bat Consultants

We are licenced bat consultants with experience in surveying all kinds of buildings, bridges, trees and general sites. We have extensive equipment including Anabat and bat box duet bat detectors, video cameras with infa red lights and endoscopes to allow us to carry out detailed surveys in all situations.

We have held site specific bat licences on various sites and have prepared reports and mitigation strategies to a high standard to satisfy various planning authorities.

We have supervised the construction of purpose built bat roosts of various designs and attended sites to supervise the careful demolition of buildings.

The information below is some general information on bats that will aid you in understanding the species and working out when you may need a bat consultant to help you.

General Bat Information.

There are 17 species of bat in the UK. These fall into two families, the horseshoe bats and the 'ordinary bats'. They are extremely difficult to identify in the hand and even more so in flight.

All species are diminishing in numbers, most probably due to their sole diet of insects reducing because of the use of pesticides and also as a result of habitat loss.

As their diet consists solely of insects, bats hibernate during the winter when their food source is at its most scarce. They will spend the winter in hollow trees, caves, mines and the roofs of buildings.

Certain species, particularly the pipistrelle (the commonest and most widespread British bat) can quickly adapt to man made structures and will readily use these to roost and to rear their young.

Bats are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, The Habitats Regulations 1994 and the Countryside & Rights of Way Act 2000.

It is an offence to intentionally or recklessly kill, injure, capture or disturb bats or to damage, destroy or obstruct access to any place used by bats for shelter or protection.

A breeding or resting site of any bat is known as a bat roost. A bat roost is therefore any structure a bat uses for shelter or protection. Because bats tend to use the same roosts each year, legal opinion is that the roost site is protected whether or not the bats are present at that time.

Bat roosts can be identified by looking for:-

• Suitable holes, cracks and crevices.
• Bat droppings.
• Prey remains.
• By carrying out night observations using a bat detector.

Where development proposals are likely to affect a bat roost site, a licence is required from Natural England.