Shared Earth is a new series from the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Natural History Unit which celebrates the natural world and explores what we can all do to help conserve wildlife and habitats and reduce our footprint on the planet
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FridayÌý26 OctoberÌý2007
Dylan Winter with Narandra Bajaria, the first person from an ethnic minority to take the chairmanship of a National Park.
Bats in the Loft
Brian and Charlotte Paton found themselves caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare when they planned to convert their loft into a study and bedroom.Ìý Brown long-eared bats had got there first so the government authority, demanded that they build an equal and equivalent space for the bats elsewhere. One suggestion was to build a full-size replica of their roof in the garden. offers free advice to householders who think they may have bats in or around their roof space.
We may no longer fear bats but they remain Britain’s most mysterious mammals. Jon Flanders has spent the summer trying to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge by studying all the bat communities within the broad landscape of Purbeck in Dorset. He’s worked out the optimum landscape features required by some of our rarest, and fussiest, bat species. This gives us the chance to protect and enhance their home range.
Broadening Access to the National Parks
Narandra Bajaria is the first person from an ethnic minority to take the chairmanship of a National Park. When he first arrived in Britain a colleague drove him into the . He was stunned by the beauty of the gritstone crags and has continued to enjoy the astonishing variety of landscapes within the park. But although the Park is fringed by multi-racial towns and cities like Sheffield, Oldham and Derby it’s still rare to see black and ethnic minority people enjoying the countryside. Narandra is leading an initiative to make more of the urban population aware of the Park and the freedom it offers.
For more information on access initiatives visit the
Richard Mabey and Peter Marren are preparing a new book which will examine the tangled relationship between man and insect. They’re keen to hear about the different names used for insects around Britain. They want to hear about local myths and legends, unusual sightings and strange behaviour.
This week we heard about thirty different Scottish names for earwigs, courtesy of the . We’d love to hear your stories too. We’ll pass them on to Peter and Richard.
