PJC’S Senior Ecologist Nicolle has recently been granted her Natural England class two bat licence. This new licence adds Nicolle to a very limited number of ecologists in the south-east that have the ability to work with bats and advise on more complex bat related matters.
Over the years, Nicolle has led on bat related projects and assisted on numerous European Protected Species Mitigation Licences for a range of different bat species and roosts across the south-east. Passionate about bats, Nicolle has worked tirelessly to gain her class two bat licence and this year, completed extensive training to upgrade her Natural England class one bat licence to a class two licence.
Completing nearly 80 hours of training this year alone, Nicolle handled a total of 44 bats of 13 different species including lesser and greater horseshoe bats and barbastelle bats! She even crawled though pitch black wet cave systems for the opportunity to view rare bat species.
Now, as a class two bat licence holder, Nicolle can independently undertake the following tasks:
- Visit hibernation sites/Undertake hibernation surveys.
- Use an endoscope.
- Take bats by hand and identify bats in hand.
- Use a static hand-held net; and
- Use a torch within a bat roost.
Nicolle has already put her class two bat licence into action and undertaken the first set of hibernation surveys for this season.