Laois Bat group ready to spread its wings

Last month, Laois Bat Conservation Group held its inaugural meeting in Portlaoise library. Its mission? To locate, identify and lead conservation of bats and their habitats, wherever they may arise, across Laois.

To discuss the group, its inception and its mission, I sat down with the Laois Co Council biodiversity officer Sophie Doyle.

Each county council across Ireland hires for the position of biodiversity officer and has done so since 2023 and they all have a similar remit to tackle ‒ the creation and implementation of a five-year biodiversity action plan, a measure which, as Ms Doyle explains, involves a wide array of different activities, including creating themed awareness weeks, which have thus far included biodiversity week, invasive species week, national heritage week and a community awareness week; enhancing and sustaining existing biodiversity hotspots in Laois; working to combat the five global drivers of biodiversity loss – changes in land and sea use, climate change, pollution, direct exploitation of natural resources and invasive species, the latter being the area that Ms Doyle is most involved in of the five, working to catalogue and remove invasive species in Laois rivers.

She describes how the idea for a bat group in Laois first came to her: "Last year during biodiversity week, where we arranged two bat walks for people in Portlaoise and then one out in Durrow, we collaborated together to get Conservation Ireland to come down and do a walk and we had great numbers with at least 25 people in Portlaoise and I said on the walk ‘would anybody join a bat group if one was set up’ and a lot of people were very impressed by it and so on."

Given the demand, she is planning on bringing representatives of the bat conservation group in Kildare to help get the new group – which has already registered the interest of 44 people – up to speed.

On a day-to-day basis, Laois bat group will become the point of contact for those people and groups across the county who encounter bats on their property and will advise them on next steps; for example, can they legally be moved, is there a risk of habitat damage, what type of species are they and how that changes conservation.

Across Laois, the bat population is widespread, which Ms Doyle says is indicative of a healthy biodiversity eco-system. The walk in Dunmore woods was such an inspiring success, thanks in part to the multiple different species of bats which call the trees home, namely the Soprano Pipistrelle and the Bechsteines. People’s Park in Portlaoise also boasts a healthy population of Pipistrelles, too, and there is even a sizeable colony in the tearooms at Emo House, which is slated to be one of the group’s first field trips.

The group will use specialised bat detector equipment to pick up on the bats' unique method of navigation echo location; the process through which ‘blind’ bats use mouth ticks to create a sonar map of their surroundings. The bat group will track the frequency of the ticks they emit in order to make an early assessment as to where exactly bats are located in a given area and what species they may be – a substantial amount of the group’s early training will involve familiarisation with the equipment and practice in identifying bat species by these clicks.

Regular events won't be starting for some time yet, as the bats only come out when temperatures are at around ten degrees celsius, which means that there is still time for anyone interested to sign up. In addition to the bat group, the biodiversity department of LCC will organise a course on wildlife rescue in collaboration with Kildare Wildlife Rescue Centre on 21 March.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme