Bats at Tattershall Castle

A Daubenton's bat

All species of bats in Britain are protected, with Tattershall Castle and Holy Trinity Church next door sharing one of the largest colonies in Britain. The main species of bats found are Pipistrelles, but a keen bat enthusiast will recognise that there are also Brown Long Eared and Daubenton bats too. The Lincolnshire Bat Group, a voluntary organisation, comes out to monitor the bats annually and helps care for any bats that need any extra tlc.

Bats are insectivorous and use echolocation to find prey and hunt at night. They emit sounds which are too high a frequency for humans to detect, and interpret the echoes created to build a "sound picture" of their surroundings. Bats sleep during the day and emerge at night just as dusk is setting, to hunt for insects around the Castle grounds and over the water in the moats.