Bat records

The Manx Bat Group collects data on bat sightings and bat roosts and has been actively recording bats since 1990. Your bat records will greatly help to build up a historical picture of bat activity in the Isle of Man.

Any bat record is useful, even if you can’t say which of the seven species it is. And we don’t just want to know about roosting bats; it is important for us to know of areas where bats congregate, perhaps to feed, or even where they cross roads or other unfavourable habitat.

You can submit a record online by choosing Submit a record from the Manx bats/Records menu (or by following the link opposite). If you have photographs or drawings of the roost or record site or a copy of notes you took at the time you can submit these with the form.

You don’t have to fill in every box on the form but the more information you can give, the more useful the record will be. The date is important but, if it’s a historical record, eg one that you remember from your childhood, an indication of the year would be all that we require. Give a grid reference if you know how to, or otherwise state the location, at least to a parish name. You can use the UK Grid Reference Finder tool to get the grid reference for any location. Weather conditions are useful and what type of record. For example, did you see the bat(s) or just hear them on a detector? Were they emerging from a roost (many bats all coming out of the same place) or was it one bat your cat brought in? Did you see a bat at all or just the signs of bats, such as droppings (similar in size and shape to mouse droppings but bat droppings crumble to dust when pinched).

Bat roosts are protected by law, and these are the most valuable records. If you are submitting a record of a bat roost, please indicate where you think the roost entrance is and let us know if the owner of the structure in which it is (house, ruin, tree etc) is aware that there is a roost or not.

Submit a bat or roost record by completing our online record form (or alternatively download a PDF copy of the record form to print out).