Five new bat species discovered in Bailiwick
FIVE new species of bats have been discovered in the Bailiwick following a survey carried out by islanders.
The survey also discovered a new species of bush cricket, as well as collecting nearly 750,000 recordings of bats, small terrestrial mammals, bush crickets and audible moth species.
This was the most extensive survey of its kind ever conducted in the Bailiwick and it also included Herm, Alderney and Sark.
More than 200 volunteer ‘citizen scientists’ set up automated recorders for four to six nights to survey one or more of 360 survey areas, each of which was 500m square.
Between April and October last year, a total of 2,221 nights of recording was achieved across 611 locations.
The research was carried out through the Bailiwick Bat Survey, a four-year partnership between the British Trust for Ornithology and the States’ Agriculture, Countryside and Land Management Services.
La Societe coordinated the 2021 survey with the help of the Alderney Wildlife Trust and La Societe Serquaise. A website was hosted by the Guernsey Biological Records Centre and was a repository of the data.
‘Undertaking such a large survey of the islands was only possible because of the large numbers of volunteers who put out detectors for us,’ said La Societe’s Bailiwick Bat Survey coordinator Sarah Allez.
‘The enthusiasm shown by volunteers has been amazing and the survey has really highlighted how some species rely on buildings for safe roosting areas and natural habitats for feeding.’
In total more than 1.5 million sound recordings were made and were fed into the BTO’s Acoustic Pipeline, which identified species automatically.
An additional manual verification was carried out and that revealed 710,260 bat recordings, and 8,211 of small terrestrial mammals.
With the identification of species of bush crickets and audible moths, the final analysis revealed 11 bat, five small mammal, six bush cricket and two audible moth species.
Five of the bats had not been recorded previously in Guernsey, and included serotine, whiskered or Brandt’s bat, Leisler’s bat, common noctule and lesser horseshoe bat.
Serotine was also new for Alderney and Sark while a new species of bush cricket, the large conehead, was also found on Guernsey, Alderney and Lihou, and this was the first record of this species in the Channel Islands.
ACLMS biodiversity officer Julia Henney said the survey had given an insight into how an overlooked group of nocturnal mammals uses the Bailiwick’s built and natural environments.
‘With three more years to go we will have a comprehensive understanding of the habitats that are important for all the bat species that occur in the islands.’
Dr Phil Atkinson, lead scientist on the project, said it demonstrated the power of citizen science.
‘The current data set of 710,260 bat recordings has been very valuable in adding to our understanding of patterns of occurrence and activity of bats across the Bailiwick of Guernsey, but it also adds to our understanding of some other species groups that were recorded as “by-catch” during bat surveys.’
He and BTO, ACLMS and La Societe thanked all the volunteers who took part, as well as Guernsey Museum, the Guille-Alles Library, the Alderney Wildlife Trust, and Sark School as well as the landowners who gave access to their land.
The full report can be read at gov.gg/strategyfornature.
