A Week on the Estate: Long Ears, Echo Located & Red Coats

The grey long-eared bat (Plecotus austriacus) is large by European standards with a wingspan in the 25-30cm range. Its outsized ears, feather-shaped with a characteristic fold, are not unlike a moth’s antennae in appearance. These sensitive instruments are sometimes stowed away under wings by resting bats.

Known in some quarters as ‘whispering bats’, the ears of these flying mammals are almost as long as their bodies. This puts them among the stealthiest of predators. Because their hearing is so sensitive, they can emit lower-energy echolocation pulses and are thus very difficult for moths (and humans doing acoustic surveys) to detect.

This bat’s favoured hunting grounds include lowland meadows and woodland fringes. Our biodiverse farming practices, with plenty of tall grass and meadow flowers brimming with bugs all bordered by stands of trees and living hedgerows, have proved very much to this rare bat’s liking.

While the grey long-eared bat is protected but relatively secure in much of Western Europe, it was believed close to extinction in the UK up to 2013 and remains our rarest breeding bat. The nature of post-war, industrialised farming may have much to do with this, with the widespread loss of meadows (up to 90%) and the equally widespread use of insecticides depriving this amazing mammal of both hunting grounds and prey.

The southern counties of the UK were until recently the northern limit of this bat’s range, and it’s more usually found in Western and Southern Europe. It may be that climate change is pushing this bat north.

However they got here, we’re utterly chuffed to extend our hospitality to what we hope is a breeding population of grey long-eared bats. We’re clearly doing something right, and news like this inspires us to keep on doing it!

Speaking of biodiverse pastures, Damian Furlong was out and about with his camera this week. He captured our Lincoln Red herd making the most of our summer pastures. The native-breed Reds are known for their hardiness all-year-round; their dark red colouring protects them from sunburn and melanoma in summer, and their thick, shaggy winter coats make them equally tolerant of cold, wet weather. That said, hardiness and wisdom go hand in hand. When it gets a bit too hot for basking, our Reds soon learn the value of shady trees and hedgerows.

* Infra-red bat images taken in Devon by C Neil Aldridge / Back from the Brink Project and obtained via Flickr Creative Commons.

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