Week Five – Bats

Slebech Park in Wales has been a centuries-long roosting site for several species of bat. Among them are 200 rare greater horseshoe bats. The bats are now at risk as work begins on burying a major gas pipeline. The construction process will breach 21 local hedgerows upon which the bats depend for navigation. Unless a solution can be found, the bats risk starvation.

With so many hedgerows affected, Bill and the team must focus their attention on the most important ones. But discovering which hedgerows they are is a tricky business requiring the services of experienced bat detectives.

The ecological consultancy Cresswell Associates, already onboard with pipeline owners National Grid, are able to provide the necessary expertise. Together with Bill and the team, they set up mist nets on various flight paths to catch bats for radio tagging. Jem then discovers that keeping up with a hungry horseshoe bat is no easy feat.

Having identified two of the most important flight paths, the team set about devising a scheme to solve the problem. Dusty and Sasha work on long-term solutions to persuade the bats to stay around Slebech Park. They dig a pond to encourage plenty of insect life and fix bat boxes in nearby trees.

Jem's solution is altogether more eccentric – he builds a hedge on wheels. Once the construction crew makes a gap in the hedge, they can wheel the mobile hedge into position to plug the gap at the end of the day. In the morning, they just wheel it away again and carry on working.

Bill is skeptical about Jem's mobile hedge idea fooling the bats and he stands to lose a fiver if they work. Thankfully for the bats, Jem wins the bet.

See the story in pictures in the gallery.