Exploring England's Woodlands to Uncover Bat Secrets with the Largest Acoustic Bat Survey

A team of bat experts guides a night-time trek through an English woodland to a cave where bats swarm after dusk, while a new nationwide acoustic survey collects over 90 million bat calls across more than 300 woodland sites. The video shows how ultrasonic detectors, thermal cameras and AI-assisted call classification are being used to build the clearest snapshot of bats in England's woodlands to date.

■ Bats in the Woodland
- Roosting sites such as bark flaps, tree cavities and ivy, and why trees matter alongside buildings
- Emerging at dusk, swarming outside the cave, chasing and tandem flight observed on a thermal camera
- Echolocation explained, including feeding buzzes and the need for special detectors

■ The Nationwide Survey
- Scale of the project: continuous overnight recording at over 300 English woodland sites
- Findings on rare species and newly filled gaps in distribution records
- Linking bat activity data with the National Forest Inventory to inform woodland management

■ Technology and Method
- Ultrasonic detectors and sound recorders placed on poles near trees
- Spectrograms and an AI algorithm trained to recognise species-specific call shapes and frequencies
- Thermal imaging used under red light so the bats are not disturbed

This is suited to viewers interested in wildlife, conservation technology or citizen science. It offers a look at how large-scale acoustic monitoring and machine learning are applied to protected species research, and what practical steps support better woodland management.