About Us
OUR HISTORY
The Sussex Bat Group was formed in 1984 to help conserve bats in East and West Sussex. The Group is a registered charity made up of volunteers who share a passion for bats. We are affiliated with the Bat Conservation Trust. Bats are facing serious population declines across the UK. There is a bat group in nearly every county working to help reverse this decline.
The aims of the Sussex Bat Group are to:
Help conserve bats and their habitat.
Raise awareness of bats and their conservation.
These aims are achieved by:
Recording and monitoring bat populations in Sussex.
Assisting Natural England with roost visits where threats to bats may exist.
Carrying out conservation projects such as bat box schemes, improving roost sites or opening and protecting potential sites.
Organising talks and educational events throughout the year.
Providing a care and rescue service for sick and injured bats, with the back up of permanent bat hospitals.
Producing a regular newsletter - The Belfry
PLEASE NOTE: The Sussex Bat Group does not undertake surveys for commercial purposes or to object to planning applications.
November 2024
Our annual AGM is coming up on Wednesday 27th November 2024, from 7.30pm, at Knepp Wildland Safaris, West Sussex.
Address is: New Barn Farm, Swallows Lane, Dial Post, RH13 8NN, with parking at the normal Knepp Safaris/Campsite Car Park. There is capacity for around 50 attendees, so please let us know if you plan to attend.
This is a chance for members to discover opportunities to get more involved with the group and to find out our plans for 2025
The meeting will be followed by presentations by committee members on our activities this year, including updates on the Greater Horseshoe roost site in West Sussex by Sheila Wright and David King, and the bat hospital by Amanda Millar.
There will also be a sale of batty items donated, to raise money for the Greater Horseshoe site observations hide in memory of Tony Hutson.
If you would like to attend please email us via sussexbatgroupevents@yahoo.com
August - September 2024
Brilliant Bats in Burial Grounds Walks – The brilliant Dr Sam Kelly has been working incredibly hard to improve her local Churches and Churchyards for Wildlife, with particular focus on bats. She has raised money for bat boxes and bat detectors, as well as putting on a number of events. And this Summer she put on five sold out bat walks in and around the churches in Chichester to promote the conservation of our local bat populations.
May 2024
Wakehurst Bioblitz Weekend– Two teams from the Bat Group took part in a large scale BioBlitz Event at the wonderful Kew Wakehurst. The event focused on finding and identifying as many species as possible in a specific area over a short period of time. The primary goal of a BioBlitz is to get an overall count of the plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms that live in a specific place. We deployed static bat detectors and went out with detectors in hand actively recording over as much of the site as possible. We recorded at least eight bat species during the session, including Brown Long Eared, Whiskered, Noctule and Nathusius Pipistrelle.
August 2023
We are delighted to see these Greater Horseshoe bats in their newly renovated roost site. Although full grown, this pup is clinging to mum as it practices flying. Just 20 months ago, in partnership with wonderful Vincent Wildlife Trust, we launched an appeal to raise funds to buy this derelict stable block in West Sussex where a pioneering group of Greater Horseshoe bats, with young pups, had been discovered…the first significant record of breeding for the species in the Southeast of England for more than 100 years!
The building they were discovered in was due to go on the market for development – so we launched the "Sussex Bat Appeal". Not only did you help to raise the purchase price within five months, we were able to raise further funds towards fixing the roof and walls, so that the roost is safe and will remain so for future generations. It is thanks to your donations that these pioneering bats now have a safe haven to raise their pups and are potentially able to return to their former ranges in the years to come. So thank you again. Stay tuned for more updates.
We have very busy with events for the past couple of months. These included bat walks at Kingley Vale Nature Reserve, Southwick Hill, Aldingbourne Church and St Mary's Churchyard in Chichester. We also hosted a stand at The Floral Fringe Fair, in Loxwood, promoting the work of our group.
Thanks to the generosity of many, we have saved a derelict stable for greater horseshoe bats
Sussex Bat Appeal - Help us create a safe haven for horseshoe bats - JustGiving
February 2023
The Sussex Bat Group is very sorry to have to tell you that Tony Hutson, our founder and ‘guru’, passed away on 16th February 2023, after a sudden deterioration in a health condition. This is a huge loss, not only to Tony’s wife, Jacqui, but to the world of Bat Conservation, where he was often referred to, fondly, as a ‘living legend’.
Tony was a modest and unassuming man who was hugely important in the bat world, not just locally and nationally but internationally. He was the author of many books; the most recent being ‘Bats – their Biology and Behaviour‘, published in 2022. His work made a major contribution to the understanding of bats and their diverse roles in the ecosystem, thereby helping to bring in legal protections both here and in many corners of the world.
Not only was Tony extremely knowledgeable about bats, he was also a leading expert on invertebrates having worked at the Department of Entomology at the British Museum (Natural History Museum) and publishing no less than two key works on Diptera (true flies) on behalf of the Royal Entomological Society of London. The first being a collaborative effort to produce a key to the large and challenging ‘fungus gnats’ (Mycetophilidae) family in Britain (effectively ‘bat food’) in 1980 (only comprehensively superseded by an ex-colleague of Tony’s as recently as 2022), then in 1984 a solo effort on the ectoparasitic, blood-sucking flies known as ‘keds, flat-flies & bat-flies’ (Hippoboscidae & Nycteribiidae). This latter volume consolidated Tony’s various passions in the world of natural history; mammals – in particular bats, birds (Tony was a keen birdwatcher and was involved with bird ringing etc) and of course the insects that interacted with the above higher taxa as potential food resources themselves, or totally flipping the script, evolving to become blood sucking external parasites of our mammalian and avian fauna.
His enthusiasm, expertise and patience with us all was endless and we deferred to his knowledge on all issues. Not only will he be terribly missed as a mentor to many a bat-worker over the years, but we will also mourn his friendship and great kindness, as well as his sense of humour and that twinkle in his eye.
Roosting greater horseshoe bat
During the last century, greater horseshoe bat numbers fell by over 90% in Britain, by some estimates, and the species became confined to parts of Wales and south-west England. Today, however, there is some much-needed good news. The population is showing signs of recovery, with small colonies now found outside of this core area. This includes one pioneer breeding colony recently discovered in an old stable block in Sussex − a sign of a possible eastward spread. For this reason, it is a site we must protect.
Vincent Wildlife Trust, Sussex Bat Group and others are working hard to safeguard this rare bat species by purchasing and restoring a roost site in Sussex.
As well as monies from the Sussex Bat Group’s own reserves, we’ve received the very generous help of our local bat groups, Surrey, Kent and Hampshire, plus additional, fantastic support from PTES, group members, local ecology companies and Southwood Foundation.
Sussex Bat Appeal, 3-4 Bronsil Courtyard Eastnor, Ledbury, Herefordshire HR8 1EP.
We are very grateful to those of you who have already contributed.
Thank you so much.
Extinct bat making a come-back? Press Release 19/01/2023
In 1992 greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis) were declared extinct from the UK, but since 2002 a single male has been recorded hibernating in disused railway tunnels in West Sussex. It has been officially known as ‘Britain’s rarest mammal’ and speculation was that he was a vagrant that had crossed the channel from France where there is an established population and took up residence in Britain.
However, during this year’s National Bat Monitoring Programme (NBMP surveys) on the 14th January 2023, members of Sussex Bat Group were astonished to find a second greater mouse-eared bat hibernating in this important network of tunnels, in addition to the single existing known male, who has been hibernating in the area for the past 20 years. [CORRECTION - Two untagged individuals have since been confirmed present - 08/03/2023]
Sheila Wright, contact for the Sussex Bat Group, says ‘This is a hugely important discovery for the Sussex Bat Group and demonstrates the importance of regular monitoring of bat colonies - we could have missed this highly significant find of the second greater mouse-eared bat in Britain. It also shows how important it is to safeguard these hibernation sites for bats.
Species recovery programmes are vital to mammal conservation efforts, required due to the threat from anthropological pressures in the 21st century such as roost loss, habitat loss and fragmentation. The Sussex Bat Group is working in partnership with Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT) to restore the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) range in Sussex, where it had been absent for more than 100 years. Like the greater mouse-eared bat, records of hibernating greater horseshoes were found in the network of disused railway tunnels, and eventually in 2019 a small pioneer breeding colony was identified in a stable block in West Sussex. VWT and Sussex Bat Group are working hard to raise funds to purchase the building, which was at risk of collapse, and rebuilding works are now underway to save the breeding roost whilst the bats are away hibernating.
Dr Stephanie Murphy of the Sussex Bat Group adds, ‘There are now many questions for us to answer: is there already a small pioneer population of greater mouse-eared bats recolonising Sussex and we just don’t know where they are breeding, as in the case of the greater horseshoe bat, or, as result of climate change and the hottest summers on record in the UK, are we getting greater mouse-eared bats just beginning to move over from mainland Europe to settle in the UK?