Bat Conservation Ireland and the National Biodiversity Data Centre are delighted to announce the publication of an ‘Identification Guide to Ireland’s Bats’. For the first time ever, Ireland now has a dedicated field guide book to its nine resident bat species and two vagrant bat species.
The 60-page, ring-bound, pocket-sized publication is an easy to read, simple guide which will help readers distinguish Irish bats based on their morphological features. There are lots of photos and illustrations of each species and their distinguishing traits. In addition, each species has been provided with descriptions of its distribution, habitats, flight style, roosts and emergence. Also, because so much bat identification in the field is based on sounds, we have included QR codes that link to sounds of typical echolocation calls for each species from both tuneable and full spectrum bat detectors.
We are really excited that a field guide for Irish bat species is now available and we hope it will make identifying Irish bats a lot more easy and accessible for everyone, especially citizen scientists who contribute huge numbers of wildlife records to the National Biodiversity Data Centre portal every year. It is available online from both www.batconservationireland.org/shop and www.biodiversityireland.ie/shop retailing at €7.50 plus postage.
This field guide is part of the NBDC’s Ireland’s Biodiversity series of identification swatches and booklets and was co-authored by Niamh Roche and Andrew Torsney.
We are very grateful for funding provided by The Community Foundation for Ireland and National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Contacts:
Dr Niamh Roche, Bat Conservation Ireland: niamhr@batconservationireland.org
Dr Liam Lysaght, National Biodiversity Data Centre: llysaght@biodiversityireland.ie