Boost for Blackdowns bats - The Blackdown Hills
Boost for Blackdowns bats
( Last Updated: 24-08-2011 )
This month Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) has received new funding for a project that will help find out more about bats in the Devon landscape.
The project is being run by DWT and the Devon Biodiversity Records Centre with support from the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty's Sustainable Development Fund. The £4,425 grant will help towards mapping and survey work and the project will run until February 2012.
Bats are important indicators of the health of a landscape and it is hoped that this project will gain new insight into their elusive behaviour.
Phoebe Grubb, DWT's Funding Officer said: "It is great to have this new support for our work in this area. This exciting project is based on Somerset Environmental Record Centre's recent Blackdown's Batscapes project. DBRC will use aerial photographs to produce a habitat map. They will then apply a habitat suitability index to produce a thematic map that will show which parts of the Blackdown Hills are most important for bats. In conjunction with this mapping process our reserves officers will use the latest bat monitoring technology to record numbers of bats at key sites."
As part of the project DWT is also looking for willing volunteers to help with the survey work. Volunteers will be invaluable in ‘ground truthing' the project maps once complete to make sure the aerial photographs are still accurate. To volunteer people should contact Dawn Lenn on 01392 279244.
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