This shows the general setup, but in this photo the nets are 'closed'. When ready for action they are opened up to reach from the top of the poles to just under the water surface. They are set up like this in daylight and kept closed until bats are flying so as not to catch birds etc.
KEWL!!
"eyes"
Very cool.
I guess I've missed other threads on this topic before today so forgive the questions. You do this for a living? And maybe tag the bats for research? Or get a head-count on the population? If so, you sure are in an interesting field of employment.
Hi Horseshoe, I work part time in the UK mainly working on sites that are to be developed, where protected species have to be legally taken into account. My specialities are bats and dormice, for both of which you need to hold a licence in order to handle them. The work involves surveying to establish if these animals are present and if so what sort of size the population might be. Then, in order for the development company to be able to proceed, mitigation measures need to be proposed which will enable the population level to be maintained after the development work.
I also do a lot of voluntary work, advising for English Nature when people have problems with bats in their homes - if they need to have timber treatment done, or reroofing etc where bats are present.
I take part in national schemes to monitor population levels of both dormice and various species of bats too.
The visit to Belize was featured as one of the 'world's top ten weirdest holidays' in a magazine apparently. I went to learn about tropical bats and unfortunately had to pay for the privilege. It was a fascinating workshop holiday though. I really enjoyed it and learnt sooo much. Apart from the bats we saw lots of animals and i personally saw 118 spp of bird, and i missed some others saw! The plants and invertebrates were wonderful too.
:)
Horse Shoe I do the same here in Northern Ireland
Mark
And you give talks, with or without slides LOL
oh aye so I do. forgot about the latter already
dawgs you guys!!!...you been holding out? Would love to hear more about this!
(my brother, down in Florida, was just inundated w/bats in his apt. They came in thru the roof somehow, and ended up in his bed! And apparently the "authorities" can't do a thing about it cuz they are protected. They seem to migrate/breed in the area and then move on.
Maybe I should give up gardening and move into the bat-world w/Philo and Mark!
Sure sounds cool to me!
In the UK you could certainly do something about what happened to your brother, because the bats were in the living space of his apt.
The bats wouldn't have wanted to be in bed with him anyway. They must have come in through a little gap and not been able to find it to get out, which does seem to happen occasionally.
The females look for a warm roost site in early summer and gather together to have their babies (usually just one per bat) which, being mammals, they suckle. When the babies are weaned and flying (or sometimes earlier, when they will carry their babies as they fly) they move on to different accommodation - they need different conditions at different times round the year.
I'll see if i can find some more postings etc for you
The first two are threads on DG
The rest are sites with info:
http://davesgarden.com/s/328132.html
http://davesgarden.com/s/321640.html
http://www.batdetective.com/
http://www.bats.org.uk/
http://www.batcon.org/
Thanks...I bookmarked a couple of those sites for future reference. Mighty interesting!
:oD
Just enjoying these post this morning..to bad they can't be moved to the Wildlife forums!
Too cool Mark that you do the same thing! I was wondering while reading your post to Phil's.
Opps forgot to tell you Phil...the first 2 links on your post are no longer connecting...thought you might want to edit the post since I'm reviving this one.
The links for the other 3 are fantastic and I've saved them to my favorites!!!
Thank you so very much for taking the time to share your experiences, job, photos and more with us...truly fascinating reading!!
WaWild1
Oh I'll have a look at that, thanks
Glad you're enjoying them :)
wow, I sure do envy you guys.........of course, I don't think I'd be too happy working with bats, they kinda creep me out but I do love those little mice :) I used to have white dancing mice when I was little and have had a pet rat too so those don't creep me out........lol
