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HEREFORDSHIRE MAMMAL GROUP SPRING NEWSLETTER (April to June 2016)
What’s Inside? Title
Page
Spring Events 1 New Members 2 Membership Subscriptions 2 News in Brief 2 Talk Review -‐ Camera Trapping 2 Talk Review -‐ Pine Marten reintroduction in Mid Wales
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Talk Review -‐ Bonkers about Blubber; 1000 days of whales and dolphins
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Forest of Dean Beaver Project 8 Dormouse Co-‐ordinator Update 9 Bat Co-‐ordinator Update 9 Midland Bat Conference Review 10 Book Review-‐Polecats 11 HMG Contacts 13
SPRING EVENTS
April Friday, 22 April 2016 at 10.00 Bat Box Check Buckenhill Wood, Woolhope Dome Meet in large lay-‐by at Siege Wood at SO605344 Contact Denise Foster via HMG Saturday, 23 April 2016 at 10.00 Bat Box Check Lea and Paget’s Wood Meet in lay-‐by at the side of road at approx. SO595346. Contact Denise Foster via HMG Wednesday, 27 April at 19.30 Bat and Roadside Mammal Driven Transect Training HWT Offices, Lower House Farm, Ledbury Road Hereford, HR1 1UT. Contact Denise Foster via HMG
Saturday, 30 April 2016 at 10.00 Bat and Dormouse Box Check Two teams required Frith Wood, Wellington Heath Meet at wood entrance at SO723405 Contact Denise Foster via HMG May Sunday, 15 May 2016 at 10.00 Bat Box Check White Rocks and Woodside HNT Reserves, The Doward. Meet at Miner’s Rest car park at approx. SO553158 Contact: Denise Foster via HMG Sunday, 22 May 2016 at 10.00 Bat Box Check Lea and Paget’s Wood Meet in lay-‐by at the side of road at approx. SO595346. Contact Denise Foster via HMG Monday, 30 May 2016 at 10.00 Bat Box Check Nupend Nature Reserve Meet at reserve entrance at SO 580355 (room for 2 cars only so car sharing is essential) Contact Denise Foster via HMG June Sunday, 05 June 2016 at 10.00 Bat Box Check Lea and Paget’s Wood Meet in lay-‐by at the side of road at approx. SO595346. Contact Denise Foster via HMG Friday, 24 June 2016 Go Bats at Bodenham James Bisset (HMG member) is leading a bat walk for the Herefordshire Walking Festival. To support this event, see walk 40 at: http://www.walkingfestival.com/media/238fc0c171eef105ffff804bffffffd3.pdf
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May and Early June Trapping Events Herefordshire Woodland Bat Project Trapping sessions will start early May until early June. Dates for some of these events will be advertised a week in advance. If you want to be added to the distribution list for all trapping events please contact Denise Foster via HMG.
NEW MEMBERS
We would like to welcome the following new members to HMG: Sally Webster, Jaclyn Walker, Lucy Fennessey, Frances Weeks, Liz McKay, Sally Clague, Robert Luxton, Philip Playford and David Hooper
MEMBERSHIP Mike Coleman, Membership Secretary We currently have 65 paid up members in HMG and 201 followers on Facebook. Remember, join the Mammal Society and get HMG subs free! Facebook -‐ HMG has an active Facebook page where we post all our events past and present. www.facebook.com/groups/222077991279736/ Membership Secretary Vacancy
We are still looking for someone to take on the role of Membership Secretary. If you are interested, please contact a member of the committee. Promoting HMG is an important role and our small group relies on membership fees to carry on our important work. Our ambition is to reach 100 members this year.
NEWS IN BRIEF Mammal Distribution Maps In 2015, we collected 560 bat records for the atlas beating 2014’s figure of 438. All these records will be included on the Distribution Maps which will be available in April for members to download. Distribution maps are being prepared for all mammals so we concentrate our survey efforts
on particular regions. Two maps will be created, one map showing historical records up to 2000 and another post 2000, so that we can see the results of our survey efforts. Bats and Swifts in Churches Project will start again in May. We would be grateful if members could survey for bats and swifts in their local church this year. It only takes 20 minutes of your time. If you are interested please contact Denise Foster via HMG for details. West Mercia Constabulary Wildlife Crime Officer A new wildlife crime police officer for Herefordshire has been appointed. We have made contact with PC Tom Milton and are hoping he can join us on some of our field trips. Tom covers a large area including Herefordshire and all the way to Malvern, Gloucester, the Welsh borders and north to Ludlow. If you witness a wildlife crime you can contact Tom through the police non-‐emergency (Tel.: 101, extension 4820) or on Tom’s mobile (07779 141232). HMG in the Press Two articles promoting our work with the churches and the Forestry Commission were submitted to the local media. However, as with all newspapers, the articles were changed and so were the headlines! Ledbury Reporter – 15th January 2016 Bats and Swifts in Churches Project – HLF Lottery Funding success for boxes. A similar article was published in the Hereford Times the same week.
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Hereford Times -‐ 28th January 2016 Forestry Commission Training Day – this was not quite the article we wrote or the title we chose, but at least we got a bit more publicity about the work we are doing with the Forestry Commission.
Winter Talk Review: Camera Trapping -‐ a talk by Wildlife Kate
Photo: Courtesy of WildlifeKate
Kate MacRae gave us a truly inspiring talk about filming wildlife using camera traps. The turnout of members was very disappointing but those who were there had a riveting and fascinating evening. Kate shared her "trade secrets", showing us how to get incredible results even from relatively inexpensive nest box and trail cameras. Kate even managed to video harvest mice feeding in a mammal box which she placed at a 7-‐ acre site called “Yew View” on the banks of the Severn at Clevelode, near Malvern, which she manages. Kate is hoping that harvest mice continue to visit the mammal box so she can get an insight into the life of this very elusive small mammal. Kate’s footage will undoubtedly be shown on the television in the near future.
Photo: Harvest Mouse by WildlifeKate Kate has always had an interest in natural history and it all started with watching birds that visited her garden in south-‐east London and subsequent visits to Greenwich Park. Kate trained as a teacher, specialising in Environmental Education and spent 12 years teaching in primary schools. Nowadays, Kate lives in Lichfield and has spent many years transforming her garden for wildlife. Her Lichfield garden has many varied habitats and last year Kate decided to create a wildflower meadow using both wild flower turf versus seed. Nectar rich plants provided an abundance of insects in the garden. Kate started filming birds in her garden in 2010 by initially purchasing a nest box camera kit. Nowadays, the WildlifeKate enterprise goes from strength to strength but watching birds is
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still her greatest passion. When Kate gives talks at schools, she often asks both teachers and children which bird species they recognise in their gardens; for the most part only two; pigeon and robin. Kate is now currently working on an App for children so they can learn more about the different species of birds. Nest boxes with camera kits are easy to set up and for just £70-‐80 they are relatively inexpensive. Kate does include additional lighting in her nest boxes but these lights are switched off at night. However, this additional lighting does not appear to have any effect on the birds. Kate decided to start filming mammals because many children only recognise either a mouse or a rat and most of them have never heard of a vole! When Kate started filming small mammals, she used an upside down wicker basket which she covered to make waterproof. Small mammals would visit the basket, which contained morsels of food; however she claims filming shrews is extremely difficult. Kate showed us footage of hedgehogs and rats eating side by side and also foxes and badgers. Some nocturnal mammals are more sensitive than others to infra-‐red sensors on cameras; foxes being one of them. Hedgehogs do not seem to be alarmed by the low red glow at all. Kate has now invested in high definition cameras, which are more suitable if footage is going to be used for broadcasts, especially for programmes such as SpringWatch or the One Show. For broadcasting, boxes with natural scenes are created using moss, bark and some pieces of vegetation like bramble. For AutumnWatch, Kate created a miniature set of the studio with a doll image of Chris Packham. It was fun to see visiting voles, attacking the Chris Packham model and generally wrecking the set! It was a very entertaining piece of footage, especially for television and particularly children. When filming wildlife, putting out different types of foodstuff to attract different species is important. One of the most favoured foodstuffs appears to be suet pellets; they are loved by voles. Dried dog biscuits are normally used to attract larger mammals such as foxes.
Photo: Testing foodstuffs by WildlifeKate Kate talked about trail cameras which are recommended for filming at night. They only require AA batteries and have inbuilt infra-‐red lights, which are triggered by movement. Trail cameras can be left out during the night-‐time and placed at badger setts or other known mammal resting places. Kate recommends taking still images from videos, as opposed to obtaining good quality still shots. Capturing a moving animal in a photograph is impossible but with video you are able to take images straight from video footage. Videos can be set to 1 minute with a 1 second delay but Kate uses a 30 second video length with a 1 second delay. Some cameras have only a 15 second video which is really too short for a quality image.
Photo: Camera trap on a bird table by WildlifeKate During the talk, we were shown some great footage of deer wallowing in mud, a fallow deer fawn suckling, a family of otters leaving a holt and much more. The highlights of the evening’s
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footage had to be the harvest mice and the male sparrowhawk visiting the bird table! Kate is an agent for Bushnell and her website has some really useful information on which cameras are best for filming certain species – everyone is trialed and reviewed. The Bushnell NatureView HD Max is recommended for filming small mammals due to its fast trigger speed and close up lenses whereas the Bushnell NatureView HD is recommended for filming larger mammals. Kate also reviews many other products for wildlife so it is worth checking this site out at www.wildlifekate.co.uk/ Winter Talk Review: Return of the native: Pine marten recovery project -‐ a talk by Lizzie Croose
Photo: Lizzie Croose talking about pine marten reintroductions. Early in February we were treated to a talk by Lizzie Croose of the Vincent Wildlife Trust. The trust was founded in 1975 by Vincent Weir and since that time has been studying and conserving British mammals, including otters, water vole and various bat species. For the last few years the trust has been working on plans to re-‐introduce pine martens from Scotland back into southern Britain. Technically this is considered a re-‐enforcement rather than a re-‐introduction as it is believed that very small numbers of pine marten could still be living in England and Wales, although not enough to form viable populations. After two years of feasibility studies, habitat surveys and form filling last autumn (2015) they were able to start putting their plans into action.
Feasibility study A release site had to be selected, first using habitat suitability models, followed up by ground truthing exercises. Various locations were initially looked at including the New Forest, the Forest of Dean and the Cambrian Mountains. An area of the Cambrian Mountains in mid Wales was eventually chosen based on forest cover, human population (disturbance) and road densities. The potential release area was surveyed for existing populations of pine martens (none were found) and also for prey availability and possible competition from other predators. Next was the issue of where to get the animals from. Scotland was the obvious choice as opposed to elsewhere in Europe, as no export import licenses were required and there was no need for quarantines. However population counts were needed at the trapping sites to ensure that the animals were taken from areas where the Scottish martens were doing well and increasing in numbers. Paperwork Once all the surveys were completed, several legal requirements needed to be fulfilled before the project could continue. A license was needed from Scottish National Heritage (SNH) to take pine martens from the wild, another license was needed from Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to release pine martens into the wild. A further license was required from the Home Office for the veterinary and research aspects of the project, including a disease risk analysis. On top of this, the trust needed to carry out public consultations with all the local stake holders, including three public meetings and discussions with the National Farmers Union and the Farmers Union of Wales. When all the paperwork was completed and the stake holders happy the translocation could begin. The translocations The project was overseen by Dr Jenny Macpherson with Lizzie running the trapping in Scotland, and David Bavin running the releases and radio tracking in Wales. In Scotland the trapping sites were pre-‐baited for three weeks before the traps were finally set. The SNH licenses required no more than four animals to be taken from each site with a total of ten males
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and ten females to be taken in 2015 and a further ten males and ten females in autumn 2016. Once the animals were caught, a vet was on site to thoroughly check them over and fit them with small radio tracking collars. If excess martens were trapped at any site then the ones not selected for the trip to Wales were released again close to where they had been caught. On average two martens were taken down to Wales each week (one male and one female). They were transported overnight in small individual cages in the back of a car. Meanwhile, down in Wales, the soft release pens were ready having been previously constructed by Dave and a crew from Chester Zoo. When the martens arrived in the middle of the night, they were placed straight into the release pens, where they were kept and fed for five days before the doors were left open for them to find their way out. Food was still left in the pens once the doors were open until Dave was satisfied the animals were no longer returning. Since all twenty animals from the first phase of the project have been translocated to Wales, Dave, his new assistant and his team of volunteers have a good idea of where all the pine martens have settled. The next task is to concentrate on tracking the females more closely to find their den sites. Several dens have been located already and as expected they are using tree hollows, derelict buildings, bird nests, squirrel dreys and man-‐made den doxes. It is hoped that some females will be using these sites to have kits in this spring! The second phase of this translocation will start in autumn of this year (2016). Lizzie is currently back in Scotland surveying for suitable sites to set the traps again, and Dave is looking for new release sites down in Wales. Once the second phase is complete, it is hoped that the VWT protocol for this translocation can be repeated elsewhere in the UK (maybe Herefordshire???). Winter Talk Review: Bonkers about Blubber; 1000 days of whales and dolphins – a talk by Mike Bailey Marine Ecologist and Herefordshire Mammal Group member Mike Bailey took us on an
incredible journey of 1000 days of his life off-‐shore studying and photographing cetaceans, a most distinctive and highly specialised order of mammals. The evening took us on a trip around the globe with some incredible photo shots, video footage and stories of whales and dolphins encountered during his trips. Mike’s enthusiasm for his work is commendable and truly inspiring. It was easy to see how the adrenaline rush is just overwhelming when these animals are encountered, particularly when they breach.
Photo: Mike Bailey Mike explained that patience is required during these offshore expeditions, as there is a lot of waiting around and thumb twiddling. However, when cetaceans finally appear it is always well-‐worth the long wait. In fact, Mike has spent 24,000 hours waiting; something all of us can relate too in some form in our endeavour to encounter our own local wildlife! Mike then took us on a trip around the world and showed us phenomena such as the “green flash” (where part of the sun changes colour just before it sets) to being on a boat in force 12 storms to witnessing twisters out at sea. There are two sub orders of cetaceans, mystecites and odontocetes which are separated by the tooth shape. The mystecites (whales) have baleens or spade-‐like teeth and the odontocetes (dolphins) have rounded teeth. Baleen plates are made of keratin with fringes that act like a filtering system to enable whales to eat large quantities of small fish.
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Both whales and dolphins are adapted to their environment. Mobility in the water is determined by their dorsal fins, which are used for balance whilst the power of movement comes from the horizontal tail or fluke. They have a thick layer of blubber which enables them to live in cold water, they breathe through blow holes and they navigate using sophisticated echolocation. They can efficiently descend into deep water using techniques to blow out oxygen and drop down using their body weight, and when re surfacing, they can “avoid the bends” by releasing nitrogen. Cetaceans also have high levels of myoglobin, a protein, stored in muscle tissue with a high affinity for oxygen, which enables them to remain underwater for long periods. Mike explained the challenge of searching for these magnificent creatures which he does by using the naked eye, as opposed to using binoculars, which limits the field of view. Other survey signs are observing changes in wave formations, blows, splashes, fish leaping, fluke prints, which are vortexes in the water, are all signs that cetaceans could be nearby. Gannets are very good indicators as these birds seek out whale and dolphins corralling food for an easy meal.
Photo: Whale poo by Mike Bailey In 1000 days offshore Mike has been lucky enough to encounter pilot whales in the Isle of Scilly, bottle-‐nosed dolphins in Cardigan Bay, blue whales in Sri Lanka, orcas in Iceland and many more. He shared with us many stories of his life as Wildlife officer on the Pride of Bilbao. This P&O vessel operated regularly between Portsmouth and Bilbao but was closed in September 2010. The Bay of Biscay is a prime
location for spotting whales and dolphins such as fin whales, the second largest animal on the planet, and also striped and common dolphins. Mike has been involved in assignments involving survey and monitoring work for proposed wind farms and observation duties during seismic exploration for gas/oil extractions. He has also been involved in many whale and dolphin rescues around the UK including the rescue attempt of the Northern bottle-‐nosed dolphin in the Thames 10 years ago.
Photo: Common Dolphin by Mike Bailey
There have been numerous strandings of cetaceans around the UK over the years where individual animals or pods have gone off course. Cetaceans have very tight family bonds with a maternity hierarchy and are often encountered in pods. Pods are led by females so in any rescue attempt it is important to locate the dominant female and get her back into the ocean first as the others will follow her. In order to release a whale back to the sea the animal has to be in a fit enough state and some are found very dehydrated. In these cases it is kinder to put them to sleep that release them back to the open sea. Mike ended his talk telling us about the hazards these animals face day to day; these same issues come up time and time again, such as plastic bags (which look like jelly fish), pollution, over fishing, fishing bycatch, harassment, collisions with large vessels etc. However there is a glimmer of hope with education programmes in force, some protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, protests against hunting in areas such as the Faroe Islands and in Taiji, Japan. What happens in the next 1000 days of Mike’s work will be crucial.
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Forest of Dean Beaver Project by Kate Wollen, Forestry Commission and HMG Member In July last summer a few of our HMG members had a day out to visit Derek Gow’s consultancy in Devon. Derek specialises in water vole re-‐introductions and also has been involved in a beaver trial near to his home in Lifton, Devon.
Photo: Courtesy of David Chapman
What really struck me on visiting the beaver site was the quality of the wildlife habitat that a family of beavers can create if fenced into what is essentially a wet woodland/scrub. In South Herefordshire and the Forest of Dean, I have spent many years working with contractors and volunteers trying to create what these beavers have achieved in just a few seasons.
Photo: Lush beaver habitat
A major plus is that water monitoring on the Devon site has shown how the beavers are ‘slowing the flow’ of the water to such an extent that flooding downstream could be prevented. Flood prevention is very topical these days and so to get any possibility of getting funding for a beaver project in our area (it doesn’t come cheap as the fence alone in Devon cost nearly £40,000), we would need to show that the costs incurred would not just be of benefit to wildlife, but also to people, by helping to prevent flooding. One such Forest of Dean site sprung to mind and so the Forestry Commission is in the very early stages of looking into making this a possibility. The site is in a small valley with a stream running through it which then runs into a village. The drier slopes of the valley provides excellent butterfly habitat for some of the Deans rarer butterflies, but as with all places the scrub encroaches and despite a huge amount of volunteer effort over the years we do struggle to keep the site in great wildlife condition. By fencing this area the beavers could potentially manage the habitat for us and also slow the water rushing down into the village in times of stormy weather. Forestry Commission do have some data of species present on the site but if we are to undertake this project I would like to get as much wildlife information as possible.
Photo: Beavers creating damns to stop flow of water Although it is just over the border into Gloucestershire, HMG have kindly agreed to help and so together with the Gloucestershire Bat
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Group we will undertake some bat surveys here this season and also some small mammal trapping. Other surveys planned are amphibian and reptile, moths and butterflies. For more details of the non-‐HMG surveys look on the Dean Green Team website on the “What’s On” pages www.deangreenteam.co.uk/index.html -‐ all help welcome. So although it is early days it could be exciting times ahead, and it all started because of the trip organised by HMG last summer to Derek Gow’s Farm! Dormouse Co-‐ordinator Update by Ann Bowker The weather is still inclement as I write, but Spring is on the way and I have been planning this year's tube survey. We have permission to survey at an estate to the North of Bromyard although I still have details to arrange. The woodland is smaller than those we worked in last year, but I hope to put up two sets of 50 tubes in order to get good coverage. It will follow a similar pattern, putting in the tubes at the end of April/beginning of May, checking them in July and September and removing them at the end of October or early November. At this stage I should be very grateful to hear from any licensees who would be prepared to come and help put the tubes in place and others who may be interested in coming along. I will try to choose Saturday mornings as before and we will probably have to meet nearby and share cars as parking could be limited. A problem has developed in the training of new licensees who are very much needed, especially if they live near enough to become active group members. As we all know there is a shortage of dormice at some box sites and at others there is already a band of helpers who are much appreciated. Of course there is also the difficulty that it may be more convenient to check the boxes during the week when trainees might not be available. I am wondering if some of you would consider opening your checks to outsiders on one occasion during the year. You could ask Mike Coleman to send round an email asking trainees to get in touch with you if they are interested and go from there.
And finally PTES has sent the following email, in which you might be interested: Save the date!
Photo: Jamie Edmonds PTES are organising a National Dormouse Conference on 9th and 10th September at Reading University. The Conference will have two very different days with talks on the Friday aimed to benefit ecological consultants and those on Saturday to be of more general interest for monitors who collect data for the NDMP. There is the opportunity to ask questions in advance of the conference and a representative from Natural England will respond to as many of these as possible in one of the Friday presentations. Tickets for the conference will go on sale in April and current information is available here: www.ptes.org/dormouseconf and questions for Natural England can be submitted here: www.ptes.org/NEQs Bat Co-‐ordinator Update by Denise Foster Hibernation -‐ Mild temperatures in December and January have resulted in some of our bats coming out of hibernation as many have been seen out and about. Two of our NBMP hibernation sites were checked in February and again in early March. Welsh Bicknor Tunnel had a record count of 35 lesser horseshoe bats and one small Myotis present which is the highest number of bats recorded for this site. Lea tunnel had 30 lesser horseshoes and one greater
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horseshoe present, which was lower than the count a year ago. I was lucky enough to be invited to assist with a local hibernation check at Colwall tunnel this winter with members of Natural England. We counted a total of 644 lesser horseshoe bats. Many of them were at the east end of the tunnel, grouped in alcoves as shown in the attached photo.
Photo by Francis Flannagan Churches Project – In early February, the Diocese Advisory Committee (DAC) invited HMG to give an update on the Bats and Swifts in Churches Project, particularly on the HLF funded box scheme for 8 Herefordshire churches. Our effort was clearly appreciated and very well received. Amongst the audience were several Architects, English Heritage, the Bishop of Ludlow, and other influential people. The Diocese of Hereford is very keen for our colleagues in Shropshire to start surveying churches within the Diocese of Hereford. This request resulted in a presentation to the Shropshire Bat Group in late February. There was a good turnout of members and some SBG members agreed to start surveying their local churches. I will initially be the project lead, so there is continuity for the project and for the Diocese. HLF Grant for Bat and Swift Boxes Update -‐ We have all permissions in place for precise locations of the Schwegler boxes and we have now placed an order with the supplier. It is anticipated to get all boxes installed by end of April before the bats and birds return to their sites. After which, we will need to concentrate on the community sharing aspect of the project.
Bats and Roadside Mammal Driven Transects – So far we have 10 teams to carry out driven transects this summer which is really great news and a great start to the project. A training session has been arranged for 27 April 2016 at Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, Lower House Farm, to run through the protocol and how to set up the equipment. This will give our records a real boost especially in remote areas. We have some teams who have offered to survey more than one area which is excellent news.
Midlands Bat Conference March 2016 Review
Photo: Denise Foster presenting at the conference The Midlands Regional Bat Conference is hosted every two years by the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) and includes the following 12 counties; Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, West Midlands, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. This year’s conference was attended by three HMG members and well worth the long drive to Yarnfield, in
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Staffordshire. This was a great opportunity to network with other like-‐minded people and to take the opportunity to hear about other bat group’s interesting projects. The agenda included a session on various talks in the morning with a chosen workshop in the afternoon; the conference closed with a session on Priorities for BCT. HMG had two slots in the programme; a 20 minute talk on Bats and Swifts in Churches by Denise Foster followed by a 5-‐minute update on all HMG’s other bat related projects presented by David Lee. It was inspiring to hear about other group’s research projects on Autumn Swarming, Bat Box Monitoring Projects, Bat Atlases, and one group is even involved in moving a timber-‐framed building along with its bats! Outreach is always part of every bat group’s objectives and this was reflected in events such as bat walks and talks or organising training days for institutions like the Forestry Commission (us) and Wildlife Crime Officers. It was also interesting to learn that group membership numbers in other counties were similar to those in Herefordshire; overall they ranged from 31 to 200 paid-‐up members. Nottinghamshire are fortunate enough to have 77 “active” members. Ian Davidson-‐Watts from Gloucestershire presented a session on Advanced Bat Survey Techniques which concentrated on the use of harp traps, mist nets and acoustic lures. He talked about bat welfare, surveyor welfare, level of competence and training. Ian is currently working with Natural England on guidelines for minimum requirements for obtaining Class 3 and Class 4 bat licenses. Ian also talked about the use of bat detectors in the field versus trapping and how results can be skewed; for example, in one particular woodland just 1% of echolocation calls recorded were long-‐eared compared with a large catch rate of 41%. Brown long-‐eared bats are known as whispering bats and have evolved not to be heard! Bechstein’s, another long-‐eared bat, are equally difficult to detect using bat detectors alone. Bechstein’s calls have the added confusion of belonging to the Myotis genus where all calls are similar. This information was
comparable to what we have found in Herefordshire. Vicky Worrall gave a fascinating update on the M6 Bat Box Scheme which was put in place when the M6 Toll Road was built 13 years ago. Not only were 2.5 million Mills & Boons books used to increase absorbency of M6 Toll but 300 bat boxes were installed at various locations along the stretch of the highway due to bat roost sites being destroyed for the road building scheme. Professional Ecologists are now passing over the monitoring of the bat boxes to local bat groups. The BCT priority session at the end of an interesting day focused on audience participation to raise new ideas. HMG member Denise Foster requested that an on-‐line resource for publishing the results of bat work, similar to the resource currently available to bat workers in the North of England and in Scotland. Its principal aim will be to publish an on-‐line journal, for bat work in the Midlands providing a forum for information that might not otherwise be published, from full-‐length papers to brief notes on items of interest. Following on from this question, David Lee requested that BCT provide bat groups with some project design and statistical training to make their results more robust. The next Midlands Bat Conference will be held in 2018. Polecats: Johnny Birks (Whittet Books, December 2015) -‐ Book review by David Lee
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Polecats is the fifth and most recent volume of Whittet Books’ new British Natural History Collection, which carries forward the long established British Natural History Series into the 21st century. As in the earlier series, all the books have been written by people who have first-‐hand knowledge of the species through their work or research and present detailed, up-‐to-‐date scientific information in a light-‐hearted manner that is accessible to anyone with an interest in British wildlife. A book dedicated to the polecat is long overdue, with very little written previously about this almost-‐forgotten species. Indeed, apart from the reports of the first two British polecat surveys -‐ also mainly written by Johnny Birks (Vincent Wildlife Trust, 1994 & 2008, both available from VWT and very readable) -‐ and a PhD thesis (Philip Blandford, Exeter 1986), a search of the British National Bibliography reveals only a 17 page Forestry Commission booklet on the European polecat by Trevor Poole, dating from 1970, and Paddy Sleeman’s “Stoats & Weasels, Polecats & Martens” (Whittet Books, 1989). Whilst Paddy’s book still provides an interesting introduction to the smaller mustelids, its treatment of the polecat is unavoidably brief and it pre-‐dates the species’ subsequent remarkable recovery and much of the recent research into polecats in Britain that is recounted in Johnny’s book. There can be no-‐one better qualified to write a book on the polecat than Johnny Birks. Starting his mustelid career early, with a childhood obsession with ferrets, he carried out his doctoral research on the ecology of the feral mink and worked on the National Otter Survey before joining the VWT to study polecats, where he was responsible for the first two polecat surveys of Britain. Much of his survey work, trapping and radio-‐tracking, was carried out in Herefordshire where he is still known as the polecat man amongst local farmers. Since leaving VWT to found Swift Ecology he has continued to maintain close ties with ongoing VWT projects studying polecats and pine martens and he has been closely involved in the organisation of international mustelid conferences and so continues to have an intimate and up-‐to-‐date knowledge of these animals.
The polecat is an extremely resilient species that remarkably has bounced back almost unnoticed from near extinction in Britain, all by itself and with no active human interference or conservation effort. Johnny recounts how for centuries it was perhaps Britain’s most despised animal and, after being common throughout the whole of Britain as recently as 1800, it was almost exterminated by persecution, until by 1914 its range had collapsed to a stronghold of only about 70km in radius around Aberdovey. The polecat’s reprieve came at the outbreak of the first world war, with the collapse of game keeping as keepers were called up to serve at the front, with a further respite in 1939. Even the collapse of the rabbit population (the polecat’s principal prey species) in the 1950s, due to the outbreak of myxomatosis, was a blessing in disguise since it put a stop to the persecution related to the rabbit trapping industry. By the 1990s the polecat had successfully recolonized almost the whole of Wales, with the exception of Anglesey and the South Wales valleys, since when its range has expanded throughout Herefordshire and into much of England south of a line from Liverpool to the Humber, with its further northern expansion impeded by urban conurbations and the uplands of the Pennines. Due to its long absence, memories of the polecat’s previous vile reputation have faded so, together with its undoubted “cute factor”, hopefully this will lead to us giving it a warmer welcome second time around. There has been much concern about hybridization of the polecat with feral ferrets and the effects that this may have on the purity of the recovering population. However Johnny suggests that this too may be an advantage since recent molecular studies have proved that the ferret was domesticated from the western polecat, so that the two are actually one and the same species. Thus ferrets are likely to provide a reservoir of ancestral polecat genes and cross-‐breeding may have helped to avoid a “genetic bottleneck”. Johnny believes that, unlike the Scottish wildcat, domesticated “ferrety” characteristics will be a disadvantage in the wild and so are likely to be bred out of the population.
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After recounting how the polecat has fought its way back from the brink of extinction, Johnny provides a detailed account of its natural history and ecology interspersed with anecdotes of his own experiences tracking polecats through rat-‐infested Herefordshire farmyards. He deals with the confusing and controversial relationship between the polecat and ferret, its relationship with other carnivores and its social life and diet. Whilst the major cause of polecat mortality is now likely to be due to road casualties, secondary rodenticide poisoning continues to be a concern and a study in the 1990s showed that 46% of polecat road casualties in winter/spring carried detectable traces of the poisons. The book concludes with advice about studying polecats in the wild – complete with the inevitable mammalogist’s obsession with droppings (only Johnny could be responsible for publishing a scientific paper entitled “On the origin of faeces…”!). The text is illustrated with some excellent drawings by Antony Griffiths, although perhaps the trademark Whittet cartoons are not quite up to the high standard previously set by Guy Troughton, and there is an attractive section of specially commissioned photographs by Richard Bowler. Johnny is currently working on another brand-‐new British Natural History Collection volume on Pine Martens. This is another species with which he has been closely involved for many years monitoring populations in Scotland and in Europe and with last year’s exciting translocation by VWT of wild-‐caught animals to reinforce the relic marten population in South Wales. In addition to Johnny’s Polecats I also recommend another recent volume in the same series: Moles by Rob Atkinson, who is also a denizen of Herefordshire (Whittet Books, 2013). Whilst both of these books may of course be purchased from any of the “usual suspects”, those within reach of Malvern may like to visit the Malvern Book Cooperative where you will be able to browse the books over fresh coffee and home-‐made cake! www.malvernbook.coop
References Birks Johnny (2015) Polecats (Whittet, Stansted) Sleeman, Paddy (1989) Stoats & Weasels: Polecats & Martens (Whittet, London ) Birks, JDS and Kitchener AC (1999) The Distribution and Status of the Polecat Mustela Putorius in Britain in the 1990s (The Vincent Wildlife Trust, London) Birks, JDS (2008) The Polecat Survey of Britain 2004-‐2006: A Report on the Polecat’s Distribution, Status and Conservation (The Vincent Wildlife Trust, Ledbury) Atkinson Rob (2013) Moles (Whittet, Stansted) Book Review – The Mole by – a review by David Lee HMG CONTACTS Chairman -‐ Dave Smith Email: [email protected] Secretary -‐ Mike Bailey Email: [email protected] Treasurer -‐ Mike Coleman Email: [email protected] Acting Membership Secretary -‐ Mike Coleman Email: [email protected] Committee Member (Bat Co-‐ordinator and Newsletter Editor) -‐ Denise Foster Email: [email protected] Committee Member -‐ David Lee Email: [email protected] Committee Member (County Mammal Recorder) -‐ Joe Allsopp Email: [email protected] Co-‐opted Committee Member (Dormouse Co-‐ordinator) -‐ Ann Bowker Email: [email protected] Co-‐opted Committee Member (Wildlife and Bridges Co-‐ordinator) -‐ Nick Underhill-‐Day Email: [email protected] HMG Main Email: Email: [email protected]