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Hello and welcome to Nature Fix
with me Claire Hickenbotham.

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Every month we take you with us
as we meet the people who spend

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their time outside and join them
in a place that most inspires

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them. The sun is setting and
we're entering an unusual

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wildlife haven, Arnis Vale
Cemetery in the middle of the

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urban hustle of Bristol.

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Dr Parvati Venugopal is taking
us on a mission to find one of

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our most charismatic and
misunderstood creatures of the

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night, bats. So mind your step
and look up as we enter the

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twilight hour in search of our
fluttering and slightly freaky

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friends.

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Wherever you may be, whether it
's the countryside or a city,

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the chances are you're not far
away from the wildlife that I'm

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looking for tonight. I have come
to Bristol and I'm walking down

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a path with a lot of street art
on it, which I think is really

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synonymous with Bristol.

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But I'm heading to a quite
unusual city location to get a

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glimpse of an enigmatic animal,
bats. And to find them, I'm

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going to be meeting an expert
from the Bat Conservation Trust.

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Hi!

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Nice to meet you.

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You too. I am from the Bat
Conservation Trust. I Am

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Parvati. I work in the National
Bat Monitoring Programme.

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Fantastic. So where are we going
to tonight?

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So I think my plan is just to
take you to this very pretty

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symmetry. I don't know whether
the pretty and symmetry words go

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together.

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It's a very pretty cemetery, a
big one in Bristol, Arnesvale.

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But we are going to take a sort
of urban set-up route. We walk

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through the backside of the
Sainsbury's and then finally get

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into the cemetery and look for
some bats, if we are lucky.

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Fantastic. So you must lead the
way. We've come from quite a

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residential part of the city,
haven't we? Yes. So lots of

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Victorian terraced housing. So
we're just skirting around the

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supermarket car park.

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Lovely birdsongs.

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What can you hear? Are you good
at recognising the birds?

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I can see a blackbird on top of
the tree.

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So I don't. Oh, there he is.

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We're just coming up to a busy
road. So I have a confession to

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make. I don't know a lot about
bats, and I'm a little bit

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scared of bats.

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That's absolutely fine. You're
not the only one, actually. Many

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people are the same, like me
personally. I was not scared of

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bats when I was a child, but I
didn't like them. The reason

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behind that was, I'm from south
of India, so I studied in a

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village school.

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Classroom roofs were like, you
know, tiled ones, and we got

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this little, tiny, teeny black
creatures in them. They often

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stained my white and blue
uniform most of the days with

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their urine or poo. So I didn't
like them at all.

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I think that's fair. So when did
the love of nature start?

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I think I got that from my
parents because my mum, she

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loves gardening. She still has a
really good vegetable garden.

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And my dad, he was an
environmental activist. So he

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used to take me with him when he
goes to schools or places where

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he gives talk.

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So your dad? Kind of started
that love.

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Started that love in me. And
also I come from a villagey

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area, so my house was next to a
paddy field. So we used to go

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and play in the paddy field
after the harvest. So it was,

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you know, always out there, very
accessible back in India. There

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was two routes mostly during
that time. Either you go medical

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field or engineering. I didn't
get a place in a government

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college to study.

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Medical degree. Then I was
scrolling through the handbook

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what other courses they offer
and I landed on this course

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called forestry. I thought oh
wow I can go to forest. I told

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my parents like okay I'm gonna
go take that course. They were

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not really happy because they
didn't know where I'm going to

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land.

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But then they sort of trusted me
and like whatever they wanted

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was like just, you know, having
a good education. During my

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master's, by accident, I did a
project on bats. And that's when

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I first handled a bat. That's
when I'm like, oh my God, these

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are so cute. So if you handle
them properly, they were like

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really, you know, snuggly and
snuffly.

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Really fluffy and that's sort of
realization like oh I like

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working in this area I love
studying about nature so I sort

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of like I often say I took the
wrong train but somehow I landed

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the right destination that's a
really nice saying I like that

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well we're nearly at the
cemetery now so you're taking me

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to Arnus Vale Cemetery yes we're
just going through the gates and

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oh my words I I mean...

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There are some very big
structures in here. Tombs,

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mausoleums.

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Yeah, and I can see some tombs
are taller than me.

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It's absolutely fantastic. We've
got this lovely patch of green

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grass in front of us, which
looks like there are more modern

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graves here. But this is like a
Victorian cemetery, isn't it?

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Yes.

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Because we think of bats and
cemeteries as being quite a good

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mix because of some of the
myths, don't we? So are they

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making a home in the cemetery
because there are lots of places

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where they can roost?

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Yeah, exactly. So they can just
They can find a home in old

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mature trees or in buildings. We
have seen quite a lot of old

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Victorian-type buildings in the
cemetery. So they can find a

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home, plus they can just go out
and get easy dinner. There are a

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lot of insects over here. You
don't need to commute that far

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to get your dinner every night.

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So this is a perfect location
for bats. And bats are really

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sort of cosmopolitan. They can
habitat anywhere. Except

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Antarctica, they are in all
continents, and that makes them

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the second largest mammalian
order after rodents. So there

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are so many cool, amazing facts
about them.

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Last winter, I went out in one
of the caves in the Mendhip

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Hills around Bristol doing a
hibernation survey, and I

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learned a new fact about bats
there. So they can just hang

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upside down just with one foot.

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Sleeping completely without
dropping off from the ceiling so

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that they have a special kind of
lock in their foot which keeps

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them there. Even if they are
dead, they can still hang sort

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of upside down. Yeah, so it's
like every time when I meet

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another bat person who is
interested in bats, I learn new

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things.

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Okay, so I'm just going to check
the time because it's nine

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o'clock in the evening now. This
is going to be the perfect time.

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Sunset time already?

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It's about sunset, isn't it?

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I'm hoping we might start seeing
some pipistrelles because that's

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one of the species that comes
out early in the evening, just

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before the sunset or soon after
the sunset.

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So how big are they?

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So they are like the size of
your thumb.

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Oh, so really tiny.

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Really tiny. So the smallest bat
in the UK is the soprano

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pipistrelle, which with the wing
folder you can fit them into a

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matchbox They're just like a
two-pound coin weight. Bats use

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a sort of special skill of
theirs called echolocation. So

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they emit sound waves and they
listen for the echoes coming

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back on any sort of objects.

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The bat echolocation calls are
ultrasound. That means our human

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ears are not very able to listen
to that frequency. We can only

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hear up to 20 kilohertz. Most of
the bats they call a bow 20

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kilohertz so we need help of the
special equipment called bat

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detectors.

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Got a little bit of kit here, a
bat detector.

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Yeah, that's right.

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I'm going to describe it as like
an old-fashioned mobile phone.

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It's a bit brick-like but it's
about the size of a mobile

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phone, isn't it? So you can fit
it in your pocket or your bag.

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This is a very cheap one I'm
using which is called

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heterodyne.

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You can get this just at...
Detectors from starting from 60

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pounds. What this does, it says
I have a frequency dial here so

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I can turn the frequency up and
down and each bat species has

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got specific peak frequencies
like, you know, I have a unique

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voice and you do and same as to
bats.

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I can't see anything flying up
here but I'm just gonna turn

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the...

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Shall we carry on? Because I've
got a funny feeling that we're

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going to have a fantastic view
when we've got to the top of

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this hill.

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Yeah.

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And the light is very quickly
going, isn't it? We'll keep our

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eyes to the treetops, I guess.

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Is the best place that we might
see them.

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So do you bring people on back
walks?

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When I go to London and take
people out, we did one in

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partnership with the Royal Parks
last year.

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What are people's reactions when
they see them and they're a bit

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more tuned in to what they're
experiencing?

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Yeah, that's what surprised me
because most people attended

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that event, they never knew
there are bats in London. And

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when they hear bats in a
detector, they're like, oh wow,

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that's so cool. And then they
straight look up in the sky so

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they can see them.

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Because, you know, if you go on
a walk in an evening like this,

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you never... Look up that often,
do you? So you can easily miss

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out things flying past. But when
they saw that, it's just like

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they were all excited.

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Do you think being in a city is
a bit of a barrier to accessing

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nature or is it just about
knowing where to look for it?

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That's a sort of common myth,
isn't it? If you are in a city,

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you don't get any wildlife,
which is not true. You need to

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go to a green space or sometimes
they can come to your garden if

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you... Look out after sunset, if
you see these little things

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flying around and around, that
might be a bat.

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So in the UK we've got 17
breeding species of bats. And in

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London you could get, I think it
's 13 or 14, I might be wrong

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but I need to check, but that
many numbers, more than half of

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the total bats in the UK you get
in the middle of London.

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And that's in London, we're in
Bristol, so it's a really nice

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way to access nature. On your
doorstep in the city, isn't it?

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Yes, yeah, yeah.

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So what would you say to people
to encourage them to come out at

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this time of night and to do
this sort of thing?

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For me personally, going out in
the park or, you know, just

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being out in the nature calms me
down after a long day of work.

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It brings peace. It's very sort
of, I don't know, serene.

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00:12:22,649 --> 00:12:27,013
So even the fresh air really
calms me down and I get like my

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brain suddenly feels like oh wow
just woke up sort of feeling do

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you feel like that's something
that you need to actively have

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in your life yes especially
after coming here because I'm

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far away from my family or close
friends I do have really good

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friends here but still you know
going out for a walk Especially

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doing bat walks like this often
introduce me to people, sort of

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like like-minded people.

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So there's always a chance to
meet a new person and make

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friends. So we are walking
through the park now, but we are

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sort of heading to the open bit
of the park. So hopefully we can

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see more displays there.

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00:13:16,788 --> 00:13:19,090
As you're saying that, we're
listening to a bird and I don't

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know whether it's a crow, but
I'm feeling like it's just

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adding to that atmosphere of the
sun is going down, we've got the

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00:13:26,316 --> 00:13:30,621
spooky birds in the background
and we're talking about bats. So

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00:13:30,738 --> 00:13:35,621
why are so many of the things we
associate with bats bad and dark

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00:13:35,731 --> 00:13:36,434
and spooky?

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I think it's mainly to do with,
you know, not knowing about them

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because... They wake up at night
by the time we go to bed. So you

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never see them. People more talk
about birds or big animals like

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00:13:52,643 --> 00:13:56,823
tigers, elephants, because you
can see them. They're very

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charismatic, but bats are mostly
black in colour. At night, dark,

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you don't see them. So it's
quite easy to come up with all

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00:14:05,346 --> 00:14:05,987
these myths.

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Just a sort of fear side, I
guess. Another myth about bats

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is that people think that they
drink blood. But as I mentioned,

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there are 1,400 more than that
bats in the world and only three

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of them drink cattle blood and
they're all in South And Central

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America. So you don't need to be
afraid going out in this country

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and looking for bats. Yeah.

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Where should we go then next to
have a look?

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I think we should head down to
there so you can come out of

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this woody bit. Oh, I can see
that bear. Just flew. I think it

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's a pipistrelle. It was very
small, flying very quick.

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00:14:48,333 --> 00:14:49,454
Oh, and now I've got something.

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00:14:50,774 --> 00:14:52,075
Yeah, can you hear that?

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00:14:52,395 --> 00:14:55,661
And I think I saw it just come
right across in front of us.

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00:14:58,442 --> 00:14:58,903
Can you hear that?

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00:14:59,122 --> 00:14:59,466
Yeah, I can.

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00:15:02,138 --> 00:15:03,961
Oh yeah, can you see that? Yes.

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00:15:06,422 --> 00:15:07,281
That's incredible.

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00:15:07,523 --> 00:15:08,367
Yes, yes.

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00:15:10,383 --> 00:15:12,429
And he actually went quite close
to us, didn't he?

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00:15:12,484 --> 00:15:13,468
Yes, yeah, yeah.

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00:15:14,570 --> 00:15:17,172
So that's the bit I'm scared of.
This is going to sound

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00:15:17,187 --> 00:15:19,172
ridiculous, but I'm really
scared of them getting tangled

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00:15:19,173 --> 00:15:19,781
in my hair.

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00:15:20,109 --> 00:15:23,875
You know what, I would say the
second most popular myth about

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00:15:23,937 --> 00:15:28,078
bats, because most people think
that they can get stuck in your

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hair. If they can detect a teeny
tiny mosquito in the dark, they

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00:15:35,010 --> 00:15:37,896
can definitely detect you on
your head.

253
00:15:38,592 --> 00:15:39,951
Oh yeah, another one. Oh my
gosh.

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00:15:41,834 --> 00:15:45,615
So we've got two or three now,
criss-crossing each other. They

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00:15:45,678 --> 00:15:48,178
look bigger than you described
them. Yes, yes. Because of that

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00:15:48,209 --> 00:15:48,928
wingspan, I guess.

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00:15:49,178 --> 00:15:49,443
Yes.

258
00:15:54,048 --> 00:15:56,829
And these are all the same sorts
of bats we're hearing?

259
00:15:56,830 --> 00:15:59,530
Yeah, I think they are soprano
pipistrelle because we are

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00:15:59,531 --> 00:16:05,331
getting the loudest sound at 55
kilohertz. So if I go down to

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00:16:05,409 --> 00:16:18,135
45, yeah, I think we've got both
species. Common pipistrelle and

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00:16:18,260 --> 00:16:19,276
soprano pipistrelle.

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00:16:20,651 --> 00:16:22,651
So the bats are eating insects?

264
00:16:22,776 --> 00:16:26,691
Yes. All the UK bats feed on
insects.

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00:16:26,692 --> 00:16:27,911
Do they eat anything else?

266
00:16:28,013 --> 00:16:34,036
Yeah, some bats, they do eat
spiders. There are species, they

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00:16:34,177 --> 00:16:37,201
eat fishes and big sort of
beetles.

268
00:16:37,521 --> 00:16:38,865
Who are the bats' predators?

269
00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:43,310
You'll be surprised with my
answer. So here in the UK, most

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00:16:43,326 --> 00:16:47,091
of the bat kills, of course,
they face quite a lot of threats

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00:16:47,169 --> 00:16:51,888
like habitat fragmentation and
destruction of old...

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00:16:52,808 --> 00:16:59,016
Mature trees or buildings but
cats are another one yeah they

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00:16:59,113 --> 00:17:02,777
attack bats they catch them
sometimes from the roost

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00:17:02,895 --> 00:17:08,340
especially so if you have a bat
roost in your house the cats can

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00:17:08,426 --> 00:17:14,371
easily catch them sometimes in
some tropics especially spiders

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00:17:14,434 --> 00:17:19,059
can also feed on bats if they
get a sort of bat tangled in the

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00:17:19,215 --> 00:17:19,840
spider web.

278
00:17:20,716 --> 00:17:23,378
And it depends on size. Yeah,
exactly.

279
00:17:34,269 --> 00:17:36,472
We're getting a constant stream
now, aren't we?

280
00:17:36,511 --> 00:17:39,839
Yeah.

281
00:17:41,644 --> 00:17:43,386
I'm so glad I can see your
excitement.

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00:17:43,387 --> 00:17:47,189
I am excited and I'm not scared
I don't know if because they're

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00:17:47,490 --> 00:17:48,091
small enough.

284
00:17:48,252 --> 00:17:48,509
Yes.

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00:17:48,912 --> 00:17:50,615
So you can hear them before you
see them.

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00:17:50,795 --> 00:17:52,716
Yeah exactly. So you kind of
know where to look. You can

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00:17:52,717 --> 00:17:54,060
prepare your mind.

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00:17:54,279 --> 00:17:57,920
So they'll start heading in now
as the light goes even more

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00:17:57,921 --> 00:17:59,357
they'll go into the trees will
they?

290
00:17:59,358 --> 00:18:02,529
Yes yeah where they can find
more insects into the woods.

291
00:18:03,185 --> 00:18:06,154
I feel like we've been here at
prime back dinner time.

292
00:18:06,201 --> 00:18:07,716
Yes yeah dinner time yeah.

293
00:18:09,326 --> 00:18:12,763
We've got them. Great flurry of
them in the cemetery and you

294
00:18:12,764 --> 00:18:15,585
know I reckon we've probably got
20 minutes of daylight left and

295
00:18:15,624 --> 00:18:18,812
we want to be out of here. So
should we turn our bat detector

296
00:18:18,890 --> 00:18:22,031
off because we know what we're
looking for now don't we? And

297
00:18:22,032 --> 00:18:23,617
should we start heading back
down?

298
00:18:23,656 --> 00:18:24,296
Yeah back down.

299
00:18:25,359 --> 00:18:27,952
Are you very pleased that we've
seen them? I am actually, yeah

300
00:18:27,953 --> 00:18:28,437
yeah.

301
00:18:29,312 --> 00:18:30,827
How are you feeling now about
them?

302
00:18:31,046 --> 00:18:34,827
Well I feel genuinely like
really excited.

303
00:18:34,999 --> 00:18:35,249
Yeah.

304
00:18:36,524 --> 00:18:38,245
The thing that we came to see,
we've seen.

305
00:18:38,565 --> 00:18:39,784
Yes. And like you said.

306
00:18:39,805 --> 00:18:43,885
In so much of nature, sometimes
that doesn't happen, does it?

307
00:18:45,522 --> 00:18:48,186
But I feel more love for them
than I did at the beginning of

308
00:18:48,187 --> 00:18:50,491
the night, which I guess is your
aim, isn't it?

309
00:18:50,492 --> 00:18:50,803
Yes.

310
00:18:52,225 --> 00:18:56,053
We've found the back gate, so
this is the way out. Amazing

311
00:18:56,054 --> 00:18:57,131
view of Bristol, actually.

312
00:18:59,381 --> 00:19:03,413
With the twinkling lights as the
city kind of wakes up for the

313
00:19:03,506 --> 00:19:08,055
evening. We're emerging out of
the park now, back onto the busy

314
00:19:08,176 --> 00:19:14,139
city streets, to the petrol
station and the pub. And it's

315
00:19:14,178 --> 00:19:19,068
just another marker, really, of
how close nature is to an urban

316
00:19:19,146 --> 00:19:21,490
centre and how accessible it is,
I guess.

317
00:19:21,584 --> 00:19:22,646
Absolutely, yeah.

318
00:19:23,943 --> 00:19:27,068
What would be your final thought
for people to encourage them to

319
00:19:27,131 --> 00:19:27,553
come out?

320
00:19:29,350 --> 00:19:32,959
Sort of be open and just go and
explore what's out there in your

321
00:19:33,053 --> 00:19:36,354
local area. Because we don't
have that many wildlife left in

322
00:19:36,375 --> 00:19:41,598
this world, so you are very
lucky to see them, observe them,

323
00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:42,820
so don't miss the chance.

324
00:19:51,547 --> 00:19:54,328
If you're planning on going bat
spotting, they're busy settling

325
00:19:54,375 --> 00:19:57,391
down for the winter right now,
but April to October is a great

326
00:19:57,438 --> 00:20:00,735
time to spot them. Please stay
safe if you're exploring in the

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00:20:00,766 --> 00:20:03,809
dark. Take a Torch and a buddy
with you. And make sure you

328
00:20:03,909 --> 00:20:05,810
follow bat protection guidance.

329
00:20:06,271 --> 00:20:09,232
Check out the Bat Conservation
Trust website for everything you

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00:20:09,334 --> 00:20:13,357
ever need to know about bats.
Thanks for listening to Nature

331
00:20:13,396 --> 00:20:17,365
Fix. We'll be back next month
with a new episode. And in the

332
00:20:17,380 --> 00:20:20,459
meantime, why not have a listen
to our other nature podcast,

333
00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:22,912
Wild Tales. Bye for now.

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00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:33,584
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