Perth City Bat Project
The Perth City Bat Project is a partnership project between Perth and Kinross Council Ranger Service, the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT), and Perth Bat Group. The project is supported by the SITA Local Biodiversity Grants scheme and Awards for All. The aim of the project is to make Perth the first UK town or city to have a comprehensive survey undertaken to find out what bats live in Perth and where in Perth they live.
The project has already drawn in some excellent media coverage, links to which can be found on the menu on the right hand side of this page.
The survey will take place over the summer of 2009, and we need your help!
Update: 11 August 2009
A press release (PDF, 80kb) has been issued today on the progress to date of the Perth City Bat Project.
Update: 10 August 2009
Volunteers taking part in the Perth City Bat Project, members of the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) and members of Perth Bat Group undertook a survey of the recently established Friarton Ponds in Perth as part of the Perth City Bat Project last week. A short report (PDF, 2mb) has been produced which may be of interest.
Update: 2 August 2009
Anna Taylor has written a press release about the project from a volunteers perspective! We have been extremely fortunate to attract a great many volunteers to participate in the Bat Project - thank you all for all your hard work!
Update: 30 July 2009
The Perth Bat Group undertook a survey of the town Lade last night, July 29th. An exciting evening was had by all with plenty of bats out and about! A short report has been compiled (PDF, 3mb) which may be of interest.
Update: 25 June 2009
The first survey of Perth's Bats has now been completed! We have been delighted by the response of volunteers and have had people come forward to undertake surveys of all the 21 squares we had identified that needed surveyed! Results are being compiled and analysed to identify the bats that we have present in Perth, but early indications are that we have quite a lot in quite a few areas! The second survey takes place between the 15th July and 17th August.
Many of the surveys were completed on the evening of June 6th when volunteers headed out into Perth after sunset to survey bats using two methods. Hetrodyne detectors (detectors that pick up the high frequency of bat calls and transfer them as a sound at a frequency humans can hear) were used to count bat passes in 2 minute intervals and 10 points in each survey square. At the same time, a frequency division detector, called a Baton, was used, to record bats for two minutes. The benefit of the frequency division detector is that it records all bats that pass, recording at all frequencies of call, so from the recordings we can identify the species of bat present. By combining the results we know which species are found, and roughly how active they area in each area.
At the same time as doing this, the Perth Bat Group has undertaken a survey of the Lade in Perth. The Lade is a very important area for wildlife as it provides a 'green corridor' through the town, along which many species of wildlife can move, live and find food and shelter. This survey has shown that there are bats present right along the Lade. The initial results from this work will be added to in a more detailed survey which will hopefully indicate how bats are moving along the Lade.
8,000 Bat Postcards were delivered across the Perth and surrounding postcode areas. We apologise that these were a little late in arriving with people, but there were some unforeseen delays in printing and delivery. This meant that they arrived after the two bat talks held earlier in the year, which they invited people to come along to.
However, we decided to send them out still as the priciple reason was to promote the survey and get peoples sightings of bats from across Perth. More than 50 people have responded so far and the results are available at our google map. We would still love to know more, so if you have not yet given us your results, please contact us at countryside@pkc.gov.uk and let us know if you have seen bats in your area and if so, where that is!
Results
When we get results from the Simple Survey, these will be added to a Google Map, so you can track the progress of this survey online. There will be a slight delay between results being submitted and being entered onto the map, so please be patient!
Results from the Bat Detector Surveys and the Simple Surveys will be collated in October and a short presentation on the project made at the Scottish Bat Conference on October 31st. A full report will be available later in the year, which will be available from this website.
