Night of the Bat

At the IVN building The Bimd, the Night of the Bat will be held. 

Inside the building, explanations will be given first. Then all participants go outside to look for bats. For this, they use a bat detector. First in the nature garden, then by the canal. Of course, they hope to discover several species of bats, especially the dwarf bat and the water bat.

 Bats are so-called hand-winged mammals. They do not have normal wings but a flight skin between the fingers of their front and hind legs. The smallest species weigh only a few grams and have a wingspan of 15 cm at most. But there are some with a wingspan of up to 170 cm. These also weigh more than a kilo. They do not occur in the Netherlands, yet there are some 21 species in the Netherlands. The best known are the dwarf bat, the ruddy bat, the long-eared bat, the great-eared bat and the water bat. Bats live on insects and fruit. They hunt at dusk and at night. But their eyes are insufficient to see small insects. That is why they use sound. To orientate themselves, a bat emits a sound signal. That signal reflects off objects, as well as prey. This is called echolocation. This is how the bat knows where it is flying, but also where its ‘snack’ is. Bats also produce social sounds, which are lower in tone. People with excellent hearing can even hear those sounds. One form of social sound are courtship calls, a kind of twittering. In winter, bats seek a safe, preferably cool place, where they hibernate. Bats are protected animals in the European Union. Because they have increasingly poor habitats, special measures are being taken, such as installing bat boxes and bat poles. Everyone, from young to old, is welcome to this event. Definitely an educational evening!