The Bats of Cork City
Cork City and environs is known to be home to seven of the ten known Irish bat species. These include: common pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle, brown long-eared, Leisler’s, Daubenton’s, Natterer’s and whiskered bat.
The two pipistrelle species are to be seen flying erratically around street lights and parks. These amazingly acrobatic flyers are after the smallest prey, namely midges and gnats which they consume in enormous quantities.
Brown long-eared bats use the city trees as feeding perches in which they can consume oversize prey like large moths which they catch in the air and more commonly by ‘gleaning’ them from foliage. Signs of this activity can be sometimes seen as piles of bat droppings mixed with moth wings.
Leisler’s bat is the largest bat in Cork and it is built for speed with long, narrow wings. It can sometimes be seen passing over the city from their roost on the north side in the early evening, even before sundown. It is one of the rarest bat species in Europe and, on the continent, is known as the ‘Irish bat’ as we are lucky enough to have the highest population of this species of any country in the world!
Daubenton’s bat can be seen hunting over the River Lee. This species behaves like a little hovercraft, carefully skimming the surface as it seeks prey that has fallen in or is emerging from the water. This it gaffs with its oversize back feet and quickly transfers it to its mouth.
Both Natterer’s and whiskered bats are species of woodland and are known to frequent such habitat on the fringes of the city, for instance, at Glanmire.
Unfortunately, Cork’s bats have declined over the past 100 years and they are therefore legally protected against injury, harm or disturbance; their roosts are also protected. However, numbers are continuing to decline due to loss of roosting and feeding habitat, development, building renovation, increased use of pesticides, misunderstanding and prejudice.
To remain as part of the city’s natural heritage, the bats of Cork need friends!
Some facts:
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Bats are not blind!
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Bats don’t get caught in hair!
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Bats are more closely related to humans than they are to mice!
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Bats can live up to 40 years or more!
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With its wings folded, a pipistrelle, Cork’s smallest bat, can fit into a matchbox!
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Cork bats find their way around at night and locate their prey by using a highly sophisticated echolocation system!
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Cork bats only have a single young each year!
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Bats do not build nests but hang up or crawl into existing cracks and crevices in trees and buildings!
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Bats very rarely live in belfries they prefer places that are free of drafts and cobwebs!