Rare bat found
When Victoria Mowatt of Kildonan found a bat lying on the doorstep of her house last week, she thought it was dead – but though very weak, it was still alive. Corinna Goeckeritz, a ranger at the Brodick NTS Country Park, is currently training for her bat licence and will become the island’s bat worker – but she had never seen a bat of the species Victoria had found, and had to look it up. ‘It turned out to be a bit of a rarity,’ she said. ‘It is a relatively large species called Leisler’s bat, which has not been recorded on Arran before.’
John Haddow of Auritus Wildlife Consultancy has been carrying out research on this rare species, and confirms that the presence of a Leisler on Arran is a record. Until now, they have only been seen in Scotland in the Newton Stewart area and Nairn, although bat detector recordings confirm that they are beginning to be seen in the west and south-west of Scotland. It is impossible to say whether the Kildonan bat is actually resident on Arran and has just come out of hibernation too early, or might have flown across from the mainland. Corinna hopes she will be able to nurse the bat (which is a female) back to health, so it can be released where it was found. She praised Victoria for finding the bat and said it would not have survived without her sensible intervention. At the moment, fingers are still crossed that it can be nursed back to health, but it is tucking into mealworms, so it’s in with a good chance.
Corinna pointed out that it is illegal to damage or destroy a bat roost or to intentionally disturb it. She said nobody should handle a bat without a licence unless it is ill or injured – but sometimes help is needed. At the end of the summer breeding season in particular, a young bat newly out of the roost can get lost and end up in a building or on the ground. It may just be dehydrated and will revive if given drops of water on the end of a fine paintbrush – but it is important to wear gloves if you pick a bat up as certain species can deliver a painful bite, and in rare cases they may transmit rabies. A sick or injured bat can be temporarily kept in a shoe box or ice cream container with small air holes in the lid, with a piece of crumpled cloth such as an old tea towel to hold on to. Bats can squeeze through the tiniest gaps, Corinna says, so make sure it can’t escape! At dusk, the bat should be released near to where it was found. Put the open box on its side out of the reach of predators, and if the bat is strong and healthy enough, it will crawl out and fly away. They can’t take off from the ground, but have to launch themselves to become airborne, so the box needs to be in a high place, on a wall or fence-post.
If you need help with a bat that is injured or ill, please phone Corinna at the NTS Ranger Centre on 01770 302462 or on 07767 330583 out of hours. Advice can also be found on the Bat Conservation Trust’s website www.bats.org.uk
