Ryevitalise – Bats and ancient trees report: 2023

Over 2023, 134 different locations across the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership Scheme area were surveyed. Recording was undertaken on a minimum of 139 different nights mainly between May and the end of September, amounting to a total of 605 nights of recording effort across sites. Sound recordings (wav files) were uploaded by volunteers to the BTO Acoustic Pipeline, through which a first automated analyses was carried out and provisional results returned. Recordings were then moved to deep glacial storage for later auditing. At the end of the survey season, a copy of the recordings was pulled back and manual auditing of the results/recordings carried out.

Overall, 797,360 recordings were collected which, following analyses and validation, were found to include 384,151 bat recordings, and 135 small terrestrial mammal recordings. Bush-crickets and audible moth species were also recorded as ‘by-catch’, for which we report species presence on a site and night basis. Following validation, the study confirmed the presence of at least 8 bat species, 3 small mammal species, 2 species of bush-cricket, and 2 audible moth species. More generally, this season of data adds to our understanding of the status of all species of bats across the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership area, and of the relative importance of different areas. In addition, the bush-cricket species Roesel’s Bush-cricket Roeseliana roeselii was recorded for the first time for the survey from four locations. Lastly, the project provides data on the distribution and activity of several species of small terrestrial mammals for the Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership Scheme area. The report includes a full species-by-species breakdown of spatial, seasonal, and through-the-night patterns of activity.