Citizen scientist to chat about bats

THE importance of bats in the region is set to be explored this month as part of a free talk hosted by the Bruce Creek Landcare Group under the Geelong Landcare Network.

Lethbridge-based bat enthusiast Grant Baverstock will lead a talk at Teesdale Community Hall all about exploring the role bats play in the local ecosystem.

“We’ll talk about some of the species that will occur around the broader Geelong region,” he said.

“After the talk, we’ll head out and use a bat detector that picks up their calls and we’ll see what’s in one of the reserves which will either be Bakers Lane Reserve or Teesdale Woodland Reserve.

“We’re expecting a max of 25 people but if there’s more interest, we should be able to squeeze in more.”

Mr Baverstock has been studying bats for nearly 40 years as a self-described citizen scientist, with his interest taking him on field trips with professional bat ecologists after starting out in the Geelong and Otways regions.

He said the winged creatures of the night play an underappreciated part in the region.

“There’s about 18 species in the Geelong area, two of which are flying foxes, and the remainder are microbats,” he said.

“Flying foxes are actually very important in the crosspollination of our native tree species and the microbats are critical in the food chain in that they’re great controllers of insect numbers.

“My intention is to make people aware bats are around and how important they are. Humans can’t pick up microbat calls and probably aren’t aware they’re flying just overhead out here.”

Mr Baverstock’s presentation will run from 7.30pm to 9pm on Saturday 16 March.

Tickets can be booked at bit.ly/3UOigzx.