Education
West Yorkshire Bat Group aim to educate the public about our bats and their importance to ecosystems. Bats are generally misunderstood creatures, there are a lot of myths associated with them.
Bats are quite difficult to study, mainly because their calls are above the range of human hearing and because they come out at night. Most UK species are crevice dwellers so can tuck themselves into tiny spaces. Not being able to see or hear a creature that comes out at night is bound to result in some interesting points of view about these wonderful mammals.
We believe that education is key in conserving bats and their habitats. If people don’t understand bats then people will not want to protect them. We carry out education through outreach, bat walks and talks, surveys and we are always looking at different ways to educate people about bats and get them interested.
We aim to make our events free or as low cost as possible. Anyone can participate in bat conservation, some activities are more accessible than others. We aim to make ourselves as inclusive as possible so if you have any special requirements or would like to make a suggestion please feel free to contact us.
Did you know?
- Bats are important environmental indicators and controllers of insect pests.
- Bats are not rodents, they do not chew or damage homes and only have one baby per year (which is why their numbers are so vulnerable to decline)
- Humans love to hate insects but for bats bugs are dinner. The presence of bats show is that our environment is healthy because a good presence of insects means that soils, plants and water bodies are healthy enough to be able to support them.
Bats are most active between April and September, the most popular way for people to begin to learn about bats is a bat walk, so if you would like a bat walk for your group please let us know and we will try and arrange something. We can also arrange library events and talks. We are all volunteers so if you fancy helping out please join us and let us know!