gibbats - We had the first bat pup (yes, that's what you call a baby bat!) of the season in our care over the weekend. At just barely 1g in weight, newborn pipistrelle bats like Bruce here are very vulnerable and won't survive long away from the colony. Like all mammals, bat pups depend on their mothers' milk for nourishment until they learn to fly and hunt mosquitoes for themselves after a few weeks. Bruce was found on the ground after he had fallen out of his maternity roost and was lucky that we were called out to pick him up quickly before he got hurt. We gave Bruce a couple of feeds before successfully returning him to his roost where his mother would have been looking for him!
Stewart Finlayson and Tyson Holmes, from the Gibraltar Museum, Giovanni Santini from the Museum’s Caving Unit and Albert Yome from GONHS are the key members running the project locally. These four individuals have been training in bat work since 2013 and are now qualified and licenced at different levels to enter sites, handle and work with bats including netting and harp trapping. They have been undergoing an intensive training course since 2013 which was provided by James Shipman, Tom August, Iain Hysom, Sam Davies and Denise Foster.
The idea behind the project is to clearly establish what bat species are living year round in Gibraltar and what species use the Rock during certain times of the year. The project aims to educate the community on bats and also advise HM Government of Gibraltar on how to protect these endangered animals and their habitats. The project is very fortunate in getting huge support from HM Government of Gibraltar's Department of the Environment, for which we thank them tremendously.
We are working on establishing which species is where and at what time of the year that species or colony is using a particular site. With those data, we are able to advice the Government on what can be done to 1) protect those sites, 2) protect those habitats 3) protect those species and 4) encourage the species population to recover to healthy numbers.
We feel that Gibraltar has tremendous potential for bats. It is in a key geographical position between Africa and of Europe. We would like to see our data and results being put to good use and our advice used to help these animals. Our aim is to help these species increase in number to what the local colonies were like in the 1980s and before.
We also hope to educate our younger generations into seeing that these wonderful creatures are important and need to be cherished and protected.
sm done
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