Bat conservation efforts helping our flying furry friends overcome Dracula smears

Charlotte Trigg, 29, believes Count Dracula has a lot to answer for when it comes to our blasé attitude about bats and their safety.

The biodiversity project manager became a volunteer for Birmingham and Black Country Bat Group during lockdown, bringing her expertise with her when she joined Severn Trent two years ago.

And part of her current role is helping in the conservation of the mammals, whose numbers have dwindled since the 1950s because of urbanisation, loss of habitats and a huge decline in their main food source - invertebrates. 

She said: "I’m known as the bat lady of Severn Trent. Almost all our reservoir sites are visited by bats and we want that to continue because it’s a great indicator that other wildlife, insects and invertebrates are doing well there too.

“We help bat conservation groups with projects at our sites, including surveys to understand which species are visiting them. We facilitate monitoring and tagging and have also installed bat boxes at some sites.

“We also ensure where we can that there are tree and hedgerow corridors for the bats to fly through on our land, and we liaise with our teams to ensure any construction work does not disturb habitats.”

Our flying furry friends have been the victim of one of the worst smear campaigns in history. Bram Stoker's Dracula instilled a generational suspicion of bats. And it does not help there is even a species called the Vampire Bat.

Charlotte added: “Many people have historically been scared of bats, probably because of Bram Stoker’s Dracula! But the truth are no species in the UK that are dangerous. Most are smaller than the palm of your hand and do not bite at all. To me, they are just very cute.”

However, decades of conservation work has finally paid off with a Midlands reservoir reporting a species had not been seen for some 100 years.

And Charlotte recently took part in the National Nathusius Pipistrelle Project for an evening of trapping at a West Midlands reservoir to help monitor population numbers.

She said: “It allowed us to collect information such as weight, length, age, plus a DNA sample and adding a ring meaning the bats movements can be tracked should it be trapped again.”

Former West Midlands RSPB project manager Charlotte added: “They are a very passionate and hardworking team who look to protect and enhance wildlife and biodiversity at Severn Trent sites across the region. They do some incredible work to ensure we have a treasure trove of wildlife at our sites.”