PIETERMARITZBURG GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL
C.A.T.
Practical Assessment Task
Grey Long-Eared Bats project
What are the Grey Long-Eared Bats and how can to conserve them?
By Hannah-Rose Milton
8/9/2014
We are often stuck in our own world and don’t think about the ones around us.
So we have been asked to look at conservation as we need to learn about how to
conserve the environment and protect our fauna and flora and to preserve our
beautiful world for our future generations to come.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents............................................................................................................ 1
Table of Figures............................................................................................................... 1
Table of Tables ................................................................................................................ 1
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 2
Overview of problem .................................................................................................. 2
Purpose of investigation ............................................................................................. 2
Procedure of investigation .......................................................................................... 2
The conservation issue ................................................................................................... 3
The impact ...................................................................................................................... 4
Importance of conserving ............................................................................................... 4
Creating awareness ........................................................................................................ 4
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 7
Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 7
Table of Figures
Figure 1 - A graph showing what people think we should do about helping to prevent
the endangerment of Grey Long-Eared Batsss. ............................................................. 5
Figure 2- The different categories of prevention surveyed by the people. ................... 6
Figure 3 - A graph showing what people think will educate people about the
endangerment of the bats. ............................................................................................. 7
Table of Tables
Table 1 - Table showing people between ages 17 and 20 choose "All methods" as
the best way to bring awareness to people. .............................................................................. 5
Introduction
Overview of problem
We are often stuck in our own world and don’t think about the ones around us.
So we have been asked to look at conservation as we need to learn about how to
conserve the environment and protect our fauna and flora and to preserve our
beautiful world for our future generations to come.
I will be covering the following aspects of conservation issues, their impact, and
the importance of conservation and creating awareness.
My topic is the on conserving the Grey Long-Eared Bats.
Purpose of investigation
This investigation will help us understand and help conserve endangered
animals (or plants or habitats) like the Grey Long-Eared Bats.
Procedure of investigation
In this investigation I have:
1) Asked questions related to the conservation we chose,
2) Answered the questions by finding information, using various sources in
the form of questionnaires, websites, as well as from another source such
as newspapers, magazines and books.
3) Created a questionnaire of a page and distributing them.
4) We recorded the bibliographical information for the websites and other
sources of media.
5) Then we analysed the information and data and summarised it.
6) We then manipulated the information and transformed it into charts and
spreadsheets in order to present it on a newly formed website of our own
design. We have used excel, database, notepad ++, and word throughout
this PAT.
We are doing this for the school management team.
The whole investigation should be done in electronic format using programmes
like word, excel, and notepad ++. And therefore at the end of the investigation the
information we have collected will be presented in a website
The conservation issue
The Grey Long-Eared Bats is endangered as it is vulnerable to a number of
threats, and is at particular risk from harsh British winters, habitat change and
loss, affecting the availability of insect prey. As the human knowledge and
technology grows we forget about the animals we need to conserve and how our
inventions affect the bats (Many, Grey Long-Eared Bats, 2014).
The cause of the endangerment of the Grey Long-Eared Bats is due to its habitat
specialisation. Effective population size estimates are below the minimum viable
population size necessary for retaining evolutionary potential and avoiding the
accumulation of deleterious alleles, but are sufficient to avoid inbreeding
depression in the short-term. This highlights the importance of maintaining gene
flow and connectivity between colonies within the UK and between the UK and
European populations
People destroy roosts by renovating building like insulation improvements,
blocking holes in walls and ceilings, re-roofing, and the redevelopment of old
buildings and barns. The presence of Grey Long-Eared Bats in a building may not
be confirmed until the building is already in the process of being demolished or
developed, due to difficulty of distinction between from the common brown longeared bat and the grey.
Lowland unimproved grasslands, the main foraging habitat of the Grey LongEared Bats, have been disappearing from the UK in the past century, with more
than 92% of unimproved grasslands in England lost due to changes in farming
practices and agricultural. Agricultural intensification and changing forestry
practices may also affect prey availability for Grey Long-Eared Bats because
steep declines of even the most common moths were recorded in the UK
Lack of knowledge on the general UK distribution and the location of summer
roosts and hibernation sites endanger roost protection and monitoring of longterm population trends (Bristol University, Bat conservation trust, 2013).
New information that has come to light during my investigation is that future
climate change is predicted to result in increased habitat suitability for Grey
Long-Eared Bats in the UK, with most of the UK becoming climatically suitable.
However, a north-western shift in the distribution of suitable conditions across
Europe suggests that much of the core of the range may become climatically
unsuitable. Therefore climate change represents a major threat to the long-term
survival of the Grey Long-Eared Bats.
The impact
Population estimates in the UK, suggesting that the adult population size is 1
000–3000 bats and that the population appears to be declining rapidly (Bristol
University, Bat conservation trust, 2013).
Grey Long-Eared Bats numbers decreased more than 40 % between 1993 and
2011.
The Bats are important because they keep most insect population size down as
insects are the main source of food for Grey Long-Eared Bats and if they were to
die out then the various insect population would infester the land and crops.
Importance of conserving
They are important for the ecosystem because they control/keep most insect
population size down as insects are the main source of food for Grey Long-Eared
Bats. Bats play important ecological roles, and insectivorous bats in particular
provide ecosystem service by controlling nocturnal insect populations, including
some agricultural. The Grey Long-Eared Bats consumes agricultural pests, like
the crane fly Tipula oleracea (leatherjackets) and the moths Autographa gamma
(silver Y) and Agrotis ipsilon (dark sword-grass / black cutworm). Therefore,
encouraging these bats in the farmed landscape may benefit the wider farming
community, though the population will have to grow substantially before it has a
considerable impact on insect pests.
Creating awareness
In Britain, bats benefit from a very comprehensive level of legal protection.
Under the Conservation Regulations it is an offence to damage or destroy
breeding sites or resting places. Fines of up to £5,000 per bat affected and six
months imprisonment are in place for these offences. Several species of bat also
benefit by the public putting bat boxes up (Many, Grey Long-Eared Bats, 2014).
The Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 it is illegal to intentionally kill, injure,
take or sell a bat, possess a live bat or part of a bat, to intentionally, or in
England and Wales, recklessly damage obstruct or destroy access to bat roosts
(Many, Grey Long-Eared Bats, 2014).
In investigating the most common ways in prevention of endangerment of the
bats, I found out that 55% of people surveyed said that we should educate the
people, 20% said we should take it to the government and 25% say we should
protest (Hannah, 2014). I agree with the majority of the people about that we
should educate the people about preventing the endangerment of te Grey LongEared Batsss and how to conserve them because I feel that knowledge is power
and if people are educated about the situation then they would do somethig
about it.
What people think we should do about helping
to prevent the endangerment of Grey longeared bats.
25%
20%
Taking it to the
government
Education people
Protesting
55%
Figure 1 - A graph showing what people think we should do about helping to prevent
the endangerment of Grey Long-Eared Bats.
Table 1 - Table showing people between ages 17 and 20 choose "All methods" as the best way to bring awareness to people.
Figure 23 -The
Thedifferent
differentcategories
categoriesof
ofprevention
preventionsurveyed
surveyedby
bythe
thepeople.
people.
In my investigation into different categories of prevention of the endangerment
of Grey Long-Eared Bats, I found that 11 people education, 4 people chose to take
it to the government and 5 people chose to protest. I agree with educating the
people about conservation of the bats as I think it would empower people to help
and do something.
In investigating the most common education methods I found that 50% of
people surveyed said we should uses all methods, 15% say we should broadcast
it over social media, 25% say we should advertise it and 10% say we should
teach it in schools to bring awareness (Hannah, 2014). I agree with the majority
vote with trying and using all methods in order to educate people because by
trying all methods it will get out to more people and of all different age groups.
What people think will educate other people
about the endangerment of Grey long-eared
bats.
10%
25%
Advertising
Social Media
50%
15%
All methods
Teaching
Figure 3 - A graph showing what people think will educate people about the
endangerment of the bats.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be seen from above that the information about Grey LongEared Bats are all based on evidence provided from various sources in answering
what is the grey long eared, why is it import and how can we conserve them.
Bibliography
Bristol University, Bat conservation trust. (2013, June). Conserving Grey LongEared Bats in our landscape. London, United Kindom.
Hannah. (2014). Questionnaire. Pietermaritzburg.
M. s. (2013). Grey Long-Eared Bats. Retrieved March 4, 2014, from ARKive.
M. s. (2014). Grey Long-Eared Bats. Retrieved March 5, 2014, from The bat
conservation trust.