It’s not all work at FPCR!

 

On 25th January 2018 a number of the ecology team had an after-work caving trip to a local cave in the Derbyshire Peak District for a mixture of fun, training and scientific bat work! Close to the town of Matlock, we descended into a natural cave system to survey for hibernating bats. This site is well-studied by the Derbyshire Bat Conservation Group at other times of the year and our results will feed into their studies.

This gave our colleagues who are trainee bat workers the chance to get close-up views of tricky to identify species of bat such as whiskered and Brandt’s. We were able to look at the differences between the species which is much harder when you can’t handle the bats when they’re in hibernation. We also set a new record for Derbyshire, we found 37 bats which is the largest number of hibernating bats ever found in a single underground system in the county!

Certainly an important site and a useful training experience although our legs were aching the next morning!

Why not join our team – as you can see it’s not all work at the office! Take a look at our upcoming open evening and sign up here: https://www.fpcr.co.uk/open-evening/