Bats are on the decline in Derbyshire – and we really need these remarkable ‘pest controllers’, as Judith Parker Dixon finds out.
Bats are legally protected, endangered species, and thousands of them make Derbyshire their home. Seventeen species of bats live in Britain and 11 of these have been found in our county – some common, some rare, and with lots of places still to be surveyed. Bats are warm-blooded mammals and the only ones capable of powered flight. They give birth and suckle their young, are intelligent, long-lived and have a complex social life…