National Bat Conference 2018 (2/2)

Early September, the National Bat Conference was held at the University of Nottingham. Days previous to the event we organised a competition offering free tickets for the winners. Our winner Nick narrate his experience during the event in this report:

I feel that I was lucky to be chosen to attend the recent National Bat conference, especially as so many other Notts bat members have done so much more for the group. I attended the conference on Sunday, which was described as the pipistrelle package. Nice touch. The day was very busy with lots of information about bats; of course.

The first talk was about white-nose syndrome (WNS) Pseudogymnoascus destructans in UK bats. This was given by Dr J Hoyt. This fungus has caused many bat deaths across North America since 2006, and is believed to have travelled there from Europe. It attacks the bats during hibernation, which causes them to wake more often using vital energy reserves, which can eventually lead to death. Despite this worrying information, it seemed from the information given, that bats in the UK are able to recover from the infection more successfully than those in the US.

The rest of the morning session was concerned about lyssavirus and the risks associated with the disease. The numbers of bats found with the virus in the UK is very small but the associated risks are enormous and not to be ignored. I for one will be wearing gloves whenever handling bats, regardless of the species. And I would advise all carers/handlers to do the same.

The afternoon session included a talk about bats in Africa, and how they are trying to conserved the populations over there. In many parts of Malawi the bats are seen as vermin and destroyed. The mitigating techniques used to conserve these beautiful animals was so important and complex. Interestingly two of our own bat group members have been part of this project, so well done to you two.

The highlight of the day was the talk given by Dr Szilard-Lehel Bucs, about cave dwelling bats in Romania. Thousands of bats are found in the caves in Romania, which left me feeling slightly jealous. Maybe I can convince my family that next year’s holiday would be so much better in Romania, wish me luck!

Thank you for choosing me to attend the conference this year, although I am still waiting for the Vogons to call me up for a private reading of my poem.

Cheers

Nick

Posted in News.