bats

danny boy · #1 (**permalink**) 10-04-2011, 07:43 PM

hello. Firstly i want to ask a stupid question, what are bats? Are they mammals? And the second question is what type of bats fly around where i am? I live in shropshire near wales and we see quite a few bats at night but i dont know what type. thanks for reading

Dogghound · #2 (**permalink**) 10-04-2011, 07:49 PM

Yes Bats are flying mammals although they are small they are very different to mice and are not related. You could have in the region of 15 species where you are. What is the habitat like? where are the bats seen over woodland, housing, water? Its extremely hard to identify bats from a description. It is hard enough in the field without a close view or a bat detector (which doesnt always give exact species).

danny boy · #3 (**permalink**) 10-04-2011, 07:54 PM

thanks for the reply. The only thin i can tell you about them are that they fly over the houses, and theres no big bodies of water near me.

Dogghound · #4 (**permalink**) 10-04-2011, 08:05 PM

Any trees? any farmland? hedgerows?

If its the middle of an urban area then most likely common pipistrelle. Other than that without more detail it could be. Lesser horseshoe, greater horseshoe, daubentons, brandts, whiskered, alcathoe, natterers, bechsteins, noctule, leislers, soprano pipistrelle, nathusius's pipistrelle, serotine, barbastelle or brown long eared. As you can see I need a bit more to go on.