Mount Pleasant Natural Resource Centre

Connecting Community and Environment

MPNRC Activities

How BIG is your Greenhouse footprint?
Thursday 19th June

AQUAPONICS: Water efficient veggies & fish in your backyard
FIELD DAY

GREYWATER
Date TBA

Aquaponics workshop
DVD OF AQUAPONICS WORKSHOP AVAILABLE.

2007 Native Grass ID Workshops
Date: Late 2008 (TBA)

BATS FOR BIODIVERSITY

How many species do you have on your property?

When people think of bats, they often conjure up images of blood sucking vampires. For South Australian bats, nothing could be further from the truth. All bat species in SA eat insects, not only mosquitoes but species that are pests to agriculture and some bat species will fly 30km in a night in search of their insect prey.

Bats are the only mammals that can sustain flight and the Mt Lofty Ranges bat species are uniquely Australian - they do not occur anywhere else in the world. There are twelve species known to occur in the Mt Lofty Ranges ranging from the Little Forest Bat weighing in at a tiny 3 grams, to the rare Yellow-belied Sheathtail Bat at 60 grams.

Bat species are thought to be in decline. The Southern Bentwing Bat has not been recorded in the Mt Lofty Ranges since the 1920's. The major threat to bats is the loss of habitat caused by vegetation clearance. Bats need tree hollows to roost in during the day and a diversity of vegetation to forage in at night. But how do we find out more about the remaining bat species and their current distribution?

Bats for Biodiversity began as a community bat monitoring project (known as Batwatch) in the Mt Lofty Ranges with community members monitoring bats in the region over the 2001-2002 summer months. Batwatch was the first bat community monitoring project of its type in Australia and aimed to develop an understanding of the presence of the 12 bat species in the greater Mount Lofty Ranges. The first recording season saw a total of 40 Landholders from Barossa to Goolwa become involved in bat monitoring by hosting the overnight automatic recording of bat echolocation signals using specialised equipment. Properties were encouraged to increase bat roosting opportunities, habitat and undertake further monitoring.

In 2004 the Upper River Torrens Landcare Group and the Mt Pleasant Natural Resource Centre received an Australian Government Envirofund grant. The resulting grant has allowed the continuation of the Batwatch program and its development into the Bats for Biodiversity Project, as it is know today. The Bats for Biodiversity Project aims to encourage landholders to promote and conserve native vegetation especially around watercourses and wetlands, by fostering an interest in bats, their habitat and the role they play in riverine and wetland ecosystems. The community involvement in the Bats for Biodiversity Project has grown since its conception in 2001 with members from the Upper River Torrens Landcare Group, Mt Pleasant Natural Resource Centre, South Para Biodiversity Project, Barossa Catchment Group, Doctors Creek Landcare Group , Tungkillo Landcare Group, Spring Valley Landcare Group and the Mid Murray Local Action Planning Group all involved in the 2004-2005 recording season. Additional groups are currently looking at purchasing equipment to become involved.

Although bat monitoring had already commenced in a number of areas within the region, there was a need to systemise and coordinate these efforts. As part of the Envirofund, the Bats for Biodiversity Project has produced a manual which standardises the monitoring process for all project participants and provides a guide for additional community groups who wish to be involved in community bat monitoring. A new property assessment data sheet titled: Is Your Property Bat Friendly? has been produced to encourage landholders to improve the bat habitat on their properties. This data sheet provides a tool not only to generate interest in the project but also to assist landholders in determining the bat habitat quality on their property. Getting people involved in this project and exited about this iconic animal encourages the conservation and improvement of habitat areas. This has benefits for many other species and contributes to the overall biodiversity health of a region.

If you would like copies of the bat data sheets or any additional information on the project including how to get involved, please contact Faye Mc Goldrick at the Mt. Pleasant Natural Resource Centre on 8568 1907, or contact us.

MPNRC

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