Bats - They could turn up anywhere

[BatiArb]

Tiny bat found in Britain for first time

 

Alcathoe's bat, first identified in Greece in 2001 and thought too weak to cross Channel, found in Yorkshire and Sussex

 

 

Martin Wainwright, Latest news, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 April 2010 15.39 BST

 

 

A bat the size of a thumbprint has been found for the first time in Britain, after crossing the Channel in defiance of experts' predictions.

 

Alcathoe's bat is the smallest of Europe's whiskered bats and the most recently discovered. It was identified as a separate species in Greece only in 2001, after tests on the frequency of its radar call, which is used by all bats to navigate and catch prey.

 

Named after a Greek princess who was changed into a bat after refusing to worship the god Dionysus, or Bacchus, the tiny mammal has been found in caves in North Yorkshire and Sussex. The sites are already celebrated in bat lore and were rigorously checked by ecologists from Leeds and Sheffield universities as part of a bat survey covering Europe.

 

The Yorkshire cave is hidden in woodland in Ryedale and was home to Britain's last-known colonies of rare barbastelle and lesser horseshoe bats in the 1960s. The Sussex site, also in woodland on the South Downs, is an area known to house a number of other rare bat species.

 

Both colonies will automatically receive the stringent protection enjoyed by other British bats.

 

Prof John Altringham of Leeds University said that the bats almost certainly existed elsewhere in the United Kingdom, but had been overlooked because of their close resemblance to other whiskered species.

 

"Identification based on appearance alone can be difficult even for the expert," he said. "In the end, only some subtle physical differences and Alcathoe's distinctive echo-location call, which terminates at a significantly higher frequency than those of its relatives (43-46khz) makes identification possible without genetic analysis."

 

Alcathoe was previously thought to be too small and weak to have crossed the Channel, but the survey suggests that the British population may be quite large. The bats were trapped as they flew into underground swarming sites where thousands of bats from many species mate before hibernating for winter.

 

Brian Walker, wildlife officer for the Forestry Commission in the North York Moors national park, said: "We have some incredibly rich bat habitats here. It was only a few years ago that work locally helped to confirm that the common pipistrelle bat was actually made up of two different species."

 

The discovery of Alcathoe's bat takes the number of British species to 17, making bats the most diverse of the country's wild mammals.

 

 

Tiny bat found in Britain for first time | Environment | guardian.co.uk

[BatiArb]

Discussion is taking place on the Woodland and Forestry forum where I posted the same subject under New Bat Species in Town.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Discussion is taking place on the Woodland and Forestry forum where I posted the same subject under New Bat Species in Town.

 

got a link Andy?

 

sounds like my cup o tea!

[BatiArb]

It appears that the UK’s ‘new’ bat, Alcathoe bat Myotis alcathoe, is not really new, but has probably been lurking amongst our other species for some time.

 

First formally identified in Greece in 2001, it has since been found in a number of European countries including the north of France, so it was expected to arrive here in the UK at some point.

 

However, not only were 70% of randomly genotyped small Myotis bats found two Sussex sites recently positively identified as M. alcathoe, but also 10% of bats captured between 2003 and 2009 at swarming sites in North Yorkshire, 350km away and originally identified as M. mystacimus (whiskered bat) or M. brandtii (Brandt’s bat) have since been confirmed as M. alcathoe. This limited evidence suggests that Alcathoe bat may be a widespread, if rare resident.

 

Superficially it resembles a whiskered sized Daubenton’s bat with small feet! It s summer habitat is old deciduous woodland; all three confirmed UK swarming sites are within or close to protected woodland.

 

After the announcement of this discovery earlier this year, bat workers handling bats were warned to be suspiciaous of any whiskered bat looking slightly different, and to be even more suspicious if the forearm measured less than 33mm.

 

With local bat group surveys now looking out for this bat new records are now coming in from other counties across the UK. the most recent I am aware of was confirmed in Kent.

[David Humphries]

That's the thing with "new species" or rare ones, they're possibly/probably already around us more than we realise.

 

Like the (to be confirmed) Oak polypore I found at Tony's Whippendell woods last Friday, it's more than likely not as rare as made out, more a case that not enough people are looking for it (trained or untrained).

 

More energies/monies needed on surveying work me thinks

 

Any one want to give me job

 

 

 

 

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[BatiArb]

That's the thing with "new species" or rare ones, they're possibly/probably already around us more than we realise.

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that was exactly my thoughts with this one.

 

I was waiting for the confirmation that it has been here for a while.

 

Now with John Altringham and his students double checking their survey records it has been shown that bats have been miss identified and Alcathoe bat has been here for potentially a decade or more.

 

NEW species - to who and to where?

 

 

 

 

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