BatChat

S1E7 This is the second installment of a two-part special recorded at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London. This time Steve Roe talks with Roberto Portela Miguez who is the senior curator in charge of mammals at the Museum. Roberto tells the tale of how he and colleagues discovered that a bat preserved in a jar of alcohol which had sat on a shelf in the collections for 30 years was...

S1E6 This is the first of a two-part special recorded at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London. In this first half Steve Roe talks with Steph West who is the Biodiversity Training Manager at the Museum based within the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity. Steph discusses the need to train the next generation of natural historians using the Museum's scientists to decant th...

S1E5 Episode five was recorded in May at the Wales Bat Worker’s weekend. The weekend brings together bat workers from across Wales and further afield and Steve speaks to four of them in this episode. Naomi Webster the is the Training & Conferences manager at BCT and gives an insight into what happens at a BCT event. Steve Lucas is the Wales Bat Officer and Species Legislation & Policy Spec...

S1E4 In our fourth episode, Steve joins bat legend Daniel Hargreaves on an autumnal evening in Rye Harbour Nature Reserve on the coastal boundary of Sussex and Kent in the search of Nathusius’ pipistrelle. Dan gives us an insight into the ecology of this migratory species and what discoveries the National Nathusius’ pipistrelle project has had to date in its five year history. Dan is also responsi...

S1E3 Episode 3 was recorded in the Gloucestershire countryside at Woodchester Mansion.  The Grade I listed Victorian mansion near Stroud, which was abandoned during construction in the 1850s, has colonies of rare greater and lesser horseshoe bats, as well as pipistrelles and small numbers of brown long-eared and serotine bats. The colony of greater horseshoe bats at the gothic manor house has been...

S1E1 In our first episode, Shirley Thompson MBE describes how bat conservation in the UK started and some of the experiences she’s had along the way such as meeting Julian Clary for a wildlife documentary and catching a bat in Kent which had been rung in Lithuania! Shirley is the person who set up the Young Batworker’s club and has been editing the Young Batworker magazine for over 30 years and sh...

S1E2 We have two guests appearing on this episode: Back from the Brink is one of the most ambitious conservation projects ever undertaken. Its aim – to save 20 species from extinction and benefit over 200 more through 19 projects that span England; from the tip of Cornwall to Northumberland. In our second episode, we talk about one of the UK’s rarest bats, the grey long-eared with Craig Dunton – B...

BatChat is the Podcast from the Bat Conservation Trust. Designed for its members and the wider bat conservation community, it talks to the experts as well as local heroes to bring you the stories from the bat conservation movement from the UK and further afield. Series One will be arriving in the next few days! Make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode and let us know if you&ap...