National Bat Care Conference

The National Bat Care Conference is a one-day event for anyone involved with bat care in the UK. It is organised jointly between Maggie Brown, of Bat Care News and the West Yorkshire Bat Hospital, and BCT.

The aim of the conference is to provide an opportunity for bat rehabilitators (new and experienced) and veterinary professionals to share knowledge and update skills in bat rehabilitation.

The next National Bat Care Conference will take place on Saturday 25 November 2023 at the South and City College - Longbridge in Birmingham and online via Zoom.

Ticket prices start at £25 for virtual attendees, and £40 for in-person attendees.

The deadlines for bookings are 16^th November for in-person tickets and 20^th November for virtual delegates.

If you have any questions about your booking, email conference@bats.org.uk

Timings

9:00am - Registration

9:30am - Welcome

4:45pm - Conference closes

• Keynote: Compassionate Euthanasia - Heidi Hargreaves, Quantock Veterinary Hospital
• Post-release monitoring - talk followed by a discussion
• Licencing bat care (followed by the panel discussion)
• Bat 1K Project - Sonia Vernes, Bat 1K
• Bat Disease Surveillance in the UK: engaging conservation volunteers & bat workers - Allyson Walsh, Bat Conservation Trust
• Dealing with the public - the voice of bat conservation - National Bat Helpline team, Bat Conservation Trust
• Bat Rescue - the public face of bat conservation for many - Maggie Brown, West Yorkshire Bat Hospital

There will also be a panel discussion exploring the implications of licencing bat care activities chaired by BCT's Director of Conservation Lisa Worledge.

Workshops

• Bat species ID and ecology - Daniel Hargreaves
• Organising a local network/regional helpline – learning from each other - led by BCT
• Reuniting baby bats with their mums - Mandy Tomas & Tina Wiffen
• Basic facilities for bat care including enrichment - Maggie Brown
• Assessing bats for best outcomes - Heidi Hargreaves

Venue details

Venue address: South & City College Birmingham, 1 Longbridge Ln, Birmingham B31 2TW. There is parking on site.

Google maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/vzHjBhVDCCcBDWf67

Nearest station: Longbridge

The conference will be hybrid and virtual attendees will join via Zoom.

FAQs

• Will the talks be recorded?

We plan to record the talks and panel discussion to share with attendees afterwards.

The last National Bat Care Conference took place on Saturday 29 February 2020.

The programme included:

• Keynote - Surgery on bats - David Holah
• Euthanasia - John Chitty
• Internal parasites - Alex Barlow
• Talks on rabies, EBLV 1 & 2 and was followed by a panel discussion

After lunch there were workshops:

• Bat care for complete beginners - Liz Eley, Frome Bat Care
• Bat species identification for bat carers - Colin Morris, BCT
• Funds and fundraising for bat care - Michelle Young, Evesham Bat Care
• Returning baby bats to their mothers - Kit Wood, East Lancs Bat Group and Tina Wiffen, Northumberland Bat Group
• Hand rearing baby bats - Maggie Brown, West Yorkshire Bat Hospital
• Examining bats, recognising problems and anticipating outcomes - led by a vet

The National Bat Care Conference 2018 took place on 24 February 2018 at Salford City Academy in Manchester.

Delegates heard from a range of speakers on a diverse range of subjects:

• The essentials of Triage - Tracey Joliffe
• Bats, Bugs and the Mighty Mite - David Dodds - additional resource: A brief guide to bat ectoparasites 4th Edition
• The Value of Enrichment - Naomi Webster
• The WWF Wildlife Rescue Center of Valpredina (Italy) - Anna Maria Gibellini
• 6 calls you’ll get on the National Bat Helpline (& how to survive them) - Laura Brown
• Observations to help increase success reuniting pups with their mothers - Kit Wood
• Mapping the development of baby bats: making provision for learning opportunities for babies reared for release - Maggie Brown
• Bats and the law for carers - Lisa Worledge
• What can the numbers tell us about bats? - Tricia Scott

After lunch - there were seven expert-led workshops:

• Bat species identification for bat carers - Gail Armstrong
• Bat care for complete beginners - Bridget Parslow
• Managing disease risk (with particular reference to rabies) - Tracey Joliffe
• Solving the problem of lost babies - Kit Wood
• Making the most of a large outdoor flight cage (with particular reference to baby bats and dependent juveniles) - Maggie Brown
• Examining bats, recognising problems and anticipating outcomes (for welfare reasons this workshop will use dead bats) - Sheryl Calway

Final session - this was an open forum discussion with the Conference closing at 5pm