The Scottish conference will provide an opportunity for volunteer and professional bat workers across Scotland to spend time together: updating their knowledge, sharing best practice, developing their skills and catching up on the latest 'bat chat'.
The Scottish Bat Conference will take place in the Pathfoot Building at Stirling University, as well as an online event this year.
For in-person attendees, there will of course be time to mingle with other bat enthusiasts during coffee and lunch breaks.
The 2025 Scottish Bat Conference programme will include:
Bats in Scotland's agricultural landscapes: do farming strategies matter? (Rochelle Kennedy)
Agricultural land makes up the majority of foraging habitat available for bats in Scotland, with farmland comprising over 70% of land use. However, intensive farming practices can reduce the abundance of insect food available to bats through the use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers. Homogeneous landscapes created by intensive farming also provide very few foraging features such as woodlands and hedgerows for bats. This study investigates whether 'mixed' farming, where crops and livestock are integrated, can help to increase bat activity on farms by increasing prey abundance and through shaping the agricultural landscape.
Species on the Edge (Cathryn Baillie)
An update on the Species on the Edge Project, which explores bats in more remote areas of Scotland.
Brandt’s bat – in Scotland?? (John Haddow)
The truth about the 19th century Brandt’s bat specimen in Perth Museum, and what has been found in Galloway recently.
Bats in Houses Update from NatureScot (Kevin Giles)
An update form NatureScot regarding the Bats in Houses project.
Thermal Vision Ecology (Andrew Milner)
Thermal Vision Ecology is the only company in the UK devoted to providing tailored solutions for ecologists. Discover how their advanced software features, including flight tracking and event detection, streamline post-survey analysis and empower ecologists with data grounded in empirical evidence. This is also a fantastic opportunity to pose any questions you may have to industry experts regarding thermal imaging in ecology.
Mass pipistrelle hibernation sites in Northumberland (Tina Wiffen)
Mass pipistrelle hibernation sites are under recorded in the UK. Four large pipistrelle hibernacula have been found in Northumberland, these are atypical sites with bats roosting above ground.
Frost swarming behaviour of pipistrelles has been discovered in the Netherlands. This study documents the bat activity in relation to air temperature at five pipistrelle hibernation sites in the north east of England and seeks to show that frost swarming does occur in the north east of England.
Scottish Bat Group Speed-Updating
You will hear about the activities of various Scottish bat groups in brief 5-minute update sessions, including Tayside Bat Group, Loch Lomond Bat Group, Fife and Kinross Bat Group, and Ayrshire and Arran Bat Group.
Priority Session – Scotland (Claudia Gebhardt)
There will be a short discussion session about bat conservation and research priorities within Scotland. All attendees are welcome to participate in the discussion. Topics can be put forward when booking for the conference, throughout the duration of the conference in the exhibition area, and of course during the priorities discussion session.
Re-establishing historic ecosystem links through targeted species reintroduction: beaver-mediated wetlands support increased bat activity (Jack Hooker)
A presentation about Jack’s PhD on the impacts of habitat fragmentation on bats which also involved investigating the effectiveness of measures designed to maintain landscape connectivity for bats and nature-based solutions for restoring degraded landscapes. This talk will cover the impact of beaver reintroductions across England and Wales on local bat assemblages.
Start Date/Time | Saturday 1st March 2025 at 9:00am |
End Date/Time | Saturday 1st March 2025 at 5:00pm |
Location |
Stirling University, Pathfoot Building FK9 4LA Google Map link |
Cost | £40 |
Region |
Scotland |
Organiser | BCT |
Other events you might like
South East of England Bat Conference
22nd March 2025
Scoping Surveys for Arborists online
27th March 2025
Advanced Bat Survey Techniques - fully booked!
4th August 2025