Staff members Steve Roe and Tom Bennett appeared on the BBC 2 wildlife series Hugh’s Wild West over the weekend. They were filmed as part of the series when they went down to Dorset last July to help Colin Morris from the Vincent Wildlife Trust undertake one of his monthly checks of his Bechstein’s bat colony.

The 12-part series, presented by lifelong nature lover Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall, documents the vast array of wildlife present in the south-west of England. The programmes have concentrated on the volunteering efforts of wildlife lovers in the west country and show just how much work goes on by dedicated volunteers to help our British wildlife.

The Bechstein’s bat colony is present on a Dorset Wildlife Trust nature reserve and the bat box scheme is managed by the Vincent Wildlife Trust who specialise in this bat species’ conservation efforts. The colony is now the longest running study of the species and has paved the way for our understanding of the speices. Steve and Tom who took a day off just to go down, had a great time with nearly 100 Bechstein’s found including the adult female with ring number T7358. In her life she’s had 11 babies and is the oldest-known UK Bechstein’s bat!

Watch the 10-minute piece on BBC iPlayer here at 23 minutes in.

Photo Credit: BBC