Rare bat species found in Kent - Bat Conservation Trust
We were delighted to find out that a grey long-eared roost has been recorded in Kent for the first time! The species was last recorded around 40 years ago in Kent, with a grounded bat rescue from Dover docks.
The grey long-eared bat is one of the rarest bat species in the UK, thought to be down to as little as 1,000 individuals. On top of that, it has quite a limited range and is mostly restricted to southern England. This new record in north Kent is an exciting new find!
Endangered bat species found in Kent
Ecologist Sally-Ann Hurry from Mountfield Ecology was commissioned by Tarmac to carry out a bat assessment of a property near Rochester in Kent. The results of this assessment would inform how bats needed to be considered in the proposed maintenance and repair work.
During the building inspection, a small number of bat droppings were found within the roof void. Sally-Ann collected a sample of the most recent droppings and submitted them to Ecotype Genetics for DNA sequencing, which would confirm to which bat species they belonged to.
The results came in and, to everyone’s surprise, they were identified as belonging to the rare grey long-eared bat! To be absolutely certain of this result, the sample was re-tested and the results came back the same. The bat droppings in this Rochester property were definitely from a grey long-eared bat. This species is currently listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List for British Mammals,
The number of droppings and their location suggests that an individual bat has visited the roof void recently. However, more survey work is ongoing to fully understand how it uses the roost.
Why is this find so important?
The Red List for British Mammals shows that four of the 11 British mammal species which are red listed as being at risk of national extinction are bats. One of those four species is the grey long-eared bat.
The grey long-eared bat is one of two long-eared bat species in the UK. Its ‘cousin’, the brown long-eared bat is a widespread species, but the grey is mainly confined to the south/southwest of England.