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BAT GROUP
The summer breeding season for bats
seems to have been a successful one. A greater horseshoe bat roost near
Grampound is building up in numbers with 50 young born this year. This
is a relatively new site and the increase in numbers cannot be explained
by births alone. Bats are obviously converging on this roost from others
that have been lost or become unsuitable for breeding. The Prideaux Wood
greater horseshoes continue to breed underground, producing five young
this year.
The group has carried out a resurvey
of Natterer's bat breeding colonies over the summer. Preliminary results
are encouraging, with colonies still present in house roofs over ten years
since the last visit.
Another grounded barbastelle has been
picked up (and subsequently released) at Widemouth Bay on 21st October.
We still do not know of any roosts of this species in Cornwall, which
typically lives in cracks in trees.
Daniel Eva
BAT HOSPITAL
The following picture shows Nezera
the Natterer's bat and her newborn baby Niobe. Nezera was brought to the
hospital in mid-April, having been found grounded in the porch of a house
near Lezerea. Her weight was low; she was lethargic and refused to fly.
Recovery was slow, hampered by her inability to gain weight and later
by the discovery of what might have been the cause of her problems - intestinal
worms. Eventually she began to fill out and was put in a large cage to
prepare her for release.
On 3rd June, Joanne, a student on work
experience, took Nezera for weighing and discovered the baby still attached
by its umbilical cord. Completely unaffected by being handled and photographed,
Nezera cleaned and suckled Niobe, even eating the afterbirth, which she
consumed at intervals with rests between. Sadly, Niobe will not be released
as both of her wings are deformed and she cannot maintain height when
flying. The reason for the deformity is not known. The vet suggests that
it is congenital and not caused by a calcium deficiency as it did not
respond to calcium supplements being given to her mother, a method which
the hospital has found to be successful in the past.
Twenty-six bats, including one baby,
were seen when the roost was surveyed, though there were probably more
concealed behind the ridge beam. The hospital received an injured male
brown long-eared, Peter, from the site ten years
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ago, and a little earlier a pre-building
survey had discovered a single "pip", but it is now only known to be a
Natterer's maternity roost.
Ginni Little
REPTILE AND AMPHIBIAN GROUP
This group's main target species for
spring and summer is the grass snake. We are short of information on the
status and distribution of all of our reptiles but this one, with its
very exacting habitat requirements, gives particular cause for concern.
If you have any records, old or new, please send them in, remembering
to say what, where, when and who (see page 6). Please also mention that
you heard about the survey in Wild Cornwall - we are comparing our response
levels between publications. For further information on grass snakes and
other "herps", including how to make your garden a haven for them, or
to join CRAG in its work, please give us a call.
Mark Nicholson
RIGS GROUP
"People and wildlife" - people who
have made a difference feature prominently in this issue of Wild Cornwall.
For geologists, the theme could be people and dead wildlife, dead people
and dead life, or even dead people and wildlife - at which point we are
into recycling and the human contribution to the great geological recycling
scheme as passive partakers. Green burials don't come within the RIGS
Group's remit!
So, who are the people we celebrate
locally for making a difference? Well, first there is the RIGS Group's
very own Jane Anderson - very much alive and living in Crackington Haven.
Some years ago she persuaded BP Shipping to let us have 200 hard hats
for use on guided walks. Last year Jane used her persuasive words to discourage
crazed gardeners from raiding Crackington Beach for pebbles for their
"water features". She wrote Save Our Stones, a leaflet produced by a partnership
including St Gennys Parish Council, North Cornwall Coast and Countryside
Service and English Nature. End of problem at Crackington: the storm beach
still protects the village. The action gained massive publicity - and
Jane has just been honoured by receiving the LASMO Geological Challenge
Award 2000. And of course that has produced more publicity over the need
not to damage natural barriers.
The second person to celebrate is Charles
Peach. His 200th birthday was celebrated - in
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his absence (bodily at least) - by
the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall putting a plaque on the Old Customs
House in Gorran Haven. Charles Peach was a customs officer and a pioneer
geologist - especially interested in Cornish fossils (very dead wildlife!).
Finally, let's flag up the geologists
in the Trust: we are keen that "geological" reserves have flourishing
wildlife too. But more of that another time!
John Macadam
Mother and baby in good
hands at the Trust's Bat Hospital in Penzance. Offers of practical,
administrative or financial help are always welcome
. Photo: Sandra Wolter |
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