ON THE WILD SIDE
Noctule bats
I WAS out walking with my dogs at the beginning of this month in a beautiful woodland near my home.
It’s a favourite and unique little ecosystem, a mixed woodland ravine with a stream running below, squeezed on both sides by flat sheep fields.
I’ve seen some wonderful things on my walks, from foxes and badgers, to goshawks and owls, all in the daytime. But that day, and a few miles in, I noticed something in the bushes… a massive dead bat.
Well, massive by British standards. As I looked over it, awed by the size… it looked back up at me. Not dead.
So there I was in the middle of the woods with a huge, freezing cold, soaking wet bat. As luck would have it, a few miles further through the woods is one of the most wellregarded wildlife rescue centres in the country.
So I found a pair of winter gloves, picked him up and, arrived just before they closed. Sadly the guy died after a few days in their care but they did everything they could.
It was a real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get close to an incredible creature. Inspired by this sweet guy, I thought I’d shared a few facts about these needlessly feared, gentle sweethearts.
The noctule is, by some accounts, the biggest species of bat in the UK. The greater horseshoe has a bigger body but weighs a lot less.
On paper, noctules aren’t much
longer-bodied than the smallest species, the pipistrelle. That fact, though, can be misleading. Their wings are at least twice as wide, and while pipistrelles weigh about 5g, noctules weigh a whopping 40g...
They are so big they are often confused for swifts on the wing. Their bodies are covered in gingery brown fluffy fur and they have cute little wide faces and bigger eyes than most bats. Noctules are the first bats to come out in the evening and are often out when it is quite light. They are also the highest fliers, flying above the treetops. So look early and look high. Coming out so early, however, means they are often eaten by birds of prey. Their habitat is nice thick woodland, with plenty of old woodpecker holes. Males take over an old hole and try to attract ladies to their bachelor pad by screaming and letting out a stink. Sounds like a lot of people I know. Their size adds to an equally big appetite. Their favourite foods are moths and big flying beetles, like dung beetles.
They will eat smaller things too, so any bugs that annoy you, these big boys will clear up all of them for you.
Saviours of the summer skies.