Nature features

The Bat Helpline provides a unique service for householders living with bats, professionals working with bats, or anyone who may have a bat question. The helpline provides callers with a wealth of bat knowledge and information.

Common pipistrelle, UK's commonest & smallest bat

At this time of year householders may discover that they are sharing their home with bats; female bats are gathering in maternity roosts to give birth to their babies (usually one apiece) in the next few weeks. The Bat Helpline can provide reassurance and advice on living with bats, ensuring that bats and people can live together in harmony.

Bats are protected by law, along with their roosts. Bats tend to return to the same roosts every year, so roosts are protected whether bats are present or not.

Serotine bats feed over farmland on dung beetles!

Members of the public may come across a bat on the ground that has been injured or is unwell. In these instances The Bat Conservation Trust recommend that people do not approach or handle the bat, but instead call the Bat Helpline (0845 1300 228) for advice and details on local bat carers.

For answers to all of your bat questions, call the Bat Helpline on 0845 1300 228 (local call costs apply) or visit www.bats.org.uk.

Bat facts:

• Seventeen species of bat reside in the UK.

• The commonest bats are pipistrelles (common and soprano), which measure just 4 – 5cm in length. The rarest bat is the greater mouse-eared, which until recently was considered extinct in the UK.

• The Bat Conservation Trust is the only national organisation solely devoted to the conservation of bats and their habitats in the UK.

• The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (amended by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000) protects bats and their roosts from damage, destruction and disturbance, whether reckless or intentional.

• There is a tiny risk that some bats in the UK may carry a rabies virus called European Bat Lyssavirus (EBLV). This is very rare – out of nearly 5,000 dead bats tested since 1986, only four have been found with the live virus.

• Bats are warm-blooded, give birth and suckle their young. They are very sociable animals, living together in colonies. They are long-lived (some can live for up to 30 years), are intelligent, highly mobile and more agile in flight than most birds.

• Bats fly and feed in the dark, which they are able to do by producing a stream of high-frequency calls and listening to the returning echoes which give a distinct 'sound picture' of the surroundings. This is called echolocation, and can only be heard by humans through use of a device called a bat detector.

• Bats in the UK eat only insects (such as midges, moths and mosquitoes), which they catch in flight or pick off water, foliage or the ground. The pipistrelle can eat up to 3,000 midges in one night - one-third of its body weight!