Social Calls of the Bats of Britain and Ireland

Neil Middleton is a licensed bat worker and trainer, with 20 years experience, having carried out most of his bat related work within the UK and Europe (Ireland, Cyprus, France, Spain and Hungary).  He is the managing director of Echoes Ecology Ltd (www.echoesecology.co.uk), an ecological consultancy he established in Scotland during 2006.  Neil has been involved with many bat related projects to date, including the Bats & The Millennium Link (BaTML) project which he set up to study the use of canal corridors by bats in Scotland (www.batml.org.uk).  Neil is an accomplished trainer across a wide range of bat related subjects, having developed and delivered well over a 100 events to date.  Neil first came across his co-authors, Andrew and Keith, whilst they all attended a bat course in Somerset during 2004, an event that not only inspired all three of them, but also was the beginning of a long friendship as they explored many bat related subjects together, including the material for this book.Andrew Froud is an ‘Ecologist’ working for the City of London, within Epping Forest (Essex).  He is a licensed bat worker with over 10 years experience.  In 2006, together with Keith French, he set up a 6 year research project, within a small part of Epping Forest, to examine habitat usage by bats in conjunction with the impact of habitat changes brought on by the sites Conservation Management Plan.  Andrew’s initial interest in social calls came about when he and Keith discovered the first known lekking Nathusius’ pipistrelle roosts for Essex on their site.  Since then, he has been fascinated by the subject, and recorded many social calls across a wide range of species.  In recent years Andrew has delivered presentations on this subject to course delegates, local bat groups and natural history groups.Keith French has over 10 years’ experience with bat related work, and is a licensed bat worker, both living and working within Epping Forest (Essex), where he is employed by the City of London as ‘Head Forest Keeper’.  Having a driven associate like Andrew Froud has helped fuel his enthusiasm to delve deeper into this complex and relatively un-researched subject.  After recording their first Nathusius’ pipistrelle lekking in an ancient oak pollard, the search was on to record social calls from other species, especially Noctule and Myotis.  Keith has also been keen to pass on the knowledge he has gained by giving guided walks, presentations and allowing volunteers the chance to improve their skills.  He is well travelled, having been fortunate enough to observe and record bats in some exotic locations such as the Amazon, Croatia, Costa Rica, USA and several African countries.

• Foreword by Dr Sandie Sowler Preface Acknowledgements About the Authors Chapter 1 – An Overview of Bats within Britain and Ireland Chapter 2 – Introducing Bat Social Calls Chapter 3 – Classification of Social Calls Chapter 4 – Considerations in Survey Design Chapter 5 – Analysis of Social Calls Chapter 6 – Species Groups Bibliography References Index

The scope of this book is to review the social calls of the 17 endemic and six vagrant species of bats in the UK and Ireland. The authors explain the difference between the classification of ‘echolocation’ calls of bats for the purposes of foraging, navigation and reducing exposure to predation, from the range of ‘social’ calls and describe the reasons both how and why bats communicate at the species and interspecies level socially.The scope of the book to focus on ‘social’ communication is both ambitious and evolutionary. In the foreword Dr Sandie Sowler MCIEEM recognises the importance of this work to inform and educate on a little understood area of communication among bats. She hopes that this will encourage further research into this area for the improvement in understanding the behaviour of bats.The book has many Spectogram graphics for the social calls of each species in various situations, and provides access to an online resource for audio and electronic files. This facility will be of use to anyone interested in listening to the fascinating range of bat calls. I recommend this book to all students, professionals and amateurs interested in developing their knowledge with this fascinating group of mammals.