"There are the most extraordinary things we could learn from them, says Brian Briggs, as he checks yet another of the bat boxes that he and his wife, Patty, have put up just outside Heathrow. They're completely fascinating, from all kinds of angles. It's a damp Sunday morning at Bedfont Lakes country park, and the Nathusius' research project team, led by Patty, is checking the artificial roosters, looking at the health and number of different bat species."
"This outing, however, is a little different from normal; the conversation is focused not on the bats but on the government's planning and infrastructure bill, which the following day will be having its final reading in the House of Lords. The group believes the bill will undo decades of progress in the conservation of protected species. They're going to derail all the good conservation work that this country has been notable for, says Patty,"
Brian and Patty Briggs monitor bat boxes near Heathrow and participate in the Nathusius' research project at Bedfont Lakes country park. The team inspects artificial roosts and records the health and numbers of different bat species. The group fears a government planning and infrastructure bill will undo decades of protected-species conservation and derail established conservation work. Patty began bat conservation in 1985, researching barn conversions and discovering a colony of 30 natterer's bats that would otherwise have been walled in. Bat rescue and rehabilitation became central to the Briggs' lives. Brian, 80, formerly an anaesthetist, recalls crude early methods for inducing torpor in bats, such as placing them in a fridge.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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