Forget scary movies, Julian Rollins finds a man who loves to care for bats.
Julian Rollins, The Telegraph 30 Jan 09;
For anyone brought up on Hammer Horror, it makes sense that a bat hunt takes you to a castle dungeon. But it's a surprise to find that if there is a fear factor, it's vertigo that comes into play.
On one of the coldest days of the year we wobble up ladders to a door in an 800-year-old keep that opens onto what once was the ground floor. There our guide, bat expert Dr Henry Schofield, briefs us about our quarry, the rare lesser horseshoe bat.
We are to keep our voices down and cannot stay long – human body heat can interrupt the sleep of the dungeon's occupants. "Look out for press-ups," he says. "If they start doing upside down press-ups then it's time to go."Apparently the press-ups are a sign that the bats are waking, a process that takes at least 10 minutes. In those minutes a bat will burn up 10 days' worth of its irreplaceable energy reserve, which can be fatal.
Another climb, this time down a rusty, iron ladder, get us into the dungeon. But when Dr Schofield's torchlight plays over the vaulted ceiling there's not a bat to be seen and after a search he can find only 15 animals tucked deep inside holes in the keep's walls.
"Never work with children and animals," he says, ruefully. The majority of the colony has, he thinks, moved on in search of slightly warmer accommodation.
The name should come as a clue, but up close a lesser horseshoe bat is surprisingly small. In hibernation its wings are tightly wrapped around a body that's just four centimetres (1½in) long.
To Dr Schofield though, it is a little gem and our castle stands in a valley that is a treasure house. He likes to keep the exact location secret; mid Wales has lots of castles and plenty have bat colonies, but only a few have lesser horseshoes.
But that looks set to change. While Britain's bats tend to be a cause of conservation concern, the lesser horseshoe is bucking the trend.
After about 60 years of decline, the past few have seen the lesser's population on the up and up. That has to be largely down to the dedication of Dr Schofield and his employer, the Herefordshire-based Vincent Wildlife Trust. Now 51, Dr Schofield has devoted years to discovering, and then catering for, the needs of the lesser horseshoe.
With friends he set up a voluntary bat group in Clwyd in the Eighties. His interest in bat conservation might have remained a hobby if he had not then got together with wealthy natural historian Vincent Weir.
Weir set up the Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT) in 1975 as his own pet conservation project and in 1990 offered Henry Schofield a job as its bat man. That gave him the chance to give up his teaching job and devote his time to bats.
He soon discovered that while lesser horseshoes have no shortage of caves, mines, even dungeons, to hibernate in, they struggle to find summer accommodation. Over time he has identified the features of a good summer roost: it should be a stone building that's at least 100 years old, have a slate roof and big, open access points.
Just the sort of thing that in recent years has been a good development prospect. Luckily for lesser horseshoes, Weir had deep pockets and the VWT has bought bat buildings as quickly as Dr Schofield and his colleagues could find them.
It now owns, or looks after, 40 properties, including old cottages, churches, coach houses and barns. All are preserved in a state of "managed" dereliction.
From the castle we travel to see one of the reserves, an old coach house close to a country mansion. Or to be more precise, the top floor of a coach house.
When the VWT took over, the roof was a summer home to 250 lesser horseshoe mothers and their young. Since then, more
than £100,000 has been spent re-roofing the building, adding predator-proof entrances and draught-proofing. It is now used by 750 bat mothers each year, but the estate's owner says he's largely unaware of the presence of his neighbours upstairs.
Weir stepped down as VWT chairman in 2007 and in future the charity will not be able to spend as freely. But Dr Schofield is optimistic and believes that there's now a blueprint for "his" bats to coexist with humans.
"If we've done anything over the years it's to show that there doesn't have to be a conflict," he says. "Bats and people can share buildings and get along quite well with a bit of give and take."
• For more information on the Vincent Wildlife Trust visit www.vwt.org.uk.
LUCKY HORSESHOES
• The greater and lesser horseshoe bats are members of the Rhinolophidae family. They get their name from their horseshoe-shaped noses, thought to help with echolocation.
• The lesser horseshoe has a wing span of up to 25 centimetres (10in), but weighs less than nine grams (⅓oz). It eats flying insects.
• In flight, a bat's heart beats at around 1,000 beats a minute. During hibernation, that drops to just 100 beats a minute.