Myth busting with Warwickshire Bat Group to celebrate International Bat Week

We have partnered with Warwickshire Bat Group to help provide people with a better understanding about bats, by busting the myths surrounding our nocturnal neighbours.

As part of our pledge to improve spaces for wildlife, we are providing bat boxes alongside select homes at our new housing development The Templars, in Temple Herdewyke.

To celebrate International Bat Week, which takes place annually from Sunday, October 24th to Sunday, October 31st , we’ve teamed up with Warwickshire Bat Group – which works to conserve bats and their habitats for future generations – to inform the public with interesting facts about bats.

Julia Waller, Membership Secretary at Warwickshire Bat Group, said: “It is highly important to help provide a sustainable environment for bats, and that’s why we are pleased to work with organisations which are helping to provide safer spaces for these much-loved mammals, such as Mulberry Homes.

“Bats are much misunderstood mammals. Primitive man’s fear of the dark and the creatures that were active in it, has left a legacy of myths and fears, and that’s why we are here to help spread the truth and dispel the myths. Here are six of the common myths which we are dispelling for Bat Week:

Myth: Bats are blind

The Truth: All bats have good eyesight and only switch to echolocation (sending out sound waves and listening for their reflections) when it gets too dark for them to find their way around.

Myth: Bats are just flying mice

The Truth: Bats are mammals but are more closely related to dogs than rodents; they feed their young (called pups) on milk.

Myth: Bats get tangled in your hair

The Truth: Bats are very agile flyers as, unlike birds, they can readily change the shape of their wings. They may fly near you, but they are just after the insects that your body heat attracts.

Myth: All bats drink blood like Dracula

The Truth: Out of over 1,400 different species of bat across the world, there are only three species that feed on blood, and they only live in Central and South America. All UK bats eat only insects.

Myth: Their nests can cause damage

The Truth: Bats do not build nests like birds or chew on anything, as they just crawl into small gaps to rest or hang from a convenient spot.

Myth: Bats breed like mice or rats

The Truth: Bats only have about one baby a year, or sometimes none at all if the weather is bad or there is a lack of insect food about.”

Julia added: “We are hoping next year to be much more active with bat walks, talks and surveys, but as winter is approaching our work with bats will reduce, for the bats begin to hibernate due to their insect food disappearing.

“So, whilst the bats are sleeping our focus shifts to a series of monthly talks about bats, which are open to anyone.

“One of our main projects that we have been continuing with, despite the pandemic, is our detective work in trying to locate one of Warwickshire’s rarer species of bat – the Serotine. We are especially trying to find where they call home, in other words their ‘roosts’.

“Although we haven’t been successful with locating these bats so far, which are one of the larger species in the UK with a wingspan of over 30 cm, we will be continuing with the project. This will allow us to not only build up a picture of all the other more common types of bats we have in the county, but also spot other rare species. In fact, it has already recorded bat calls from another rare species of bat known as the Barbastelle.”

Kerry Jones, Sales and Marketing Director at Mulberry Homes, said: “At Mulberry, one of our key missions is to help improve the environments which surround our homes.

“This is why we have installed bat boxes at our new housing development, The Templars, to help provide these fascinating mammals with further protection and shelter.

“We hope that with the ecological work we are carrying out across our developments, we can help to protect and attract wildlife to local areas where we are building our homes.”

More details about the bat talk and the rest of the winter series can be found on the Warwickshire Bat Group website, https://www.warksbats.co.uk/aboutus/diary.aspx.