National Bat Care Conference

The next National Bat Care Conference will take place on Saturday 29 February 2020 at the University of Gloucestershire Oxstalls Campus, Gloucester.

Booking is now open!

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 programme will include:

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

After lunch there will be a workshops session, where you can choose to attend one of the following:

• 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

Click here to book your place

If you have any questions about the conference, email training@bats.org.uk

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