Morlaix Drive development at Derriford Hospital open for bat residents
Dark air-life looping
Yet missing the pure loop ...
A twitch, a twitter, an elastic shudder in flight
And serrated wings against the sky,
Like a glove, a black glove thrown up at the light,
And falling back.
Never swallows!
Bats!
-Bat, by D.H Lawrence
This extract from D.H Lawrence’s poem Bat published in 1923 demonstrates the human fascination with the creature. The protagonist in the poem mistakes the ‘air-life lopping’ as a swallow, before remembering the surrounding darkness and realising it must be a bat that flies above them. Undoubtedly, the distinctive, twitchy flying-style of bats evokes eerie connotations; in films and T.V, bats are usually accompanied by witches, all hallows eve and cauldrons, and Bram Stoker made his Count Dracula morph from a vampire into a bat. But there’s more to this creature than spooky stories and Halloween motifs.
Bats are a vital part of our native wildlife and ecosystems, accounting for almost a third of all mammal species in the UK. They occupy a wide range of habitats, such as wetlands, woodlands, farmland, as well as urban areas. As they are top predators of common nocturnal insects and are sensitive to changes in land use practices, their presence, or lack of it, tells us about the state of the environment. The pressures they face - such as landscape change, agricultural intensification, development, and habitat fragmentation are also relevant to many other wildlife species, making them excellent indicators for the wider health of the UK's wildlife. As a general rule- the more bats in an area, the greater the biodiversity.
In recognition of the importance of preserving the bat population, UHP worked with Plymouth City Council’s Natural Infrastructure team to install some bat boxes along Morlaix Drive. During the project to widen the road, 7 sites were identified on trees owned by the Trust, NHS Property Service and SWAST as suitable locations for bat boxes. They were then installed by South West Highway’s Landscaping contractors in March 2023.
Prior to the boxes being fitted, surveys conducted in 2022 found various species of bats living onsite including the Common Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle and Noctule, with occasional records of Brown Long-eared Bat, Whiskered/Brandt’s Bat and the small Myotid species. It is hoped that the warm and cosy boxes will encourage bats to roost, grow our population and increase the Trust’s biodiversity.
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