Resultados de la aplicación de los modelos

During my study of the reserve, a local bat group conducted several exercises to monitor bats. I knew of the group organiser, Sid, through the reserve’s social network; he became my gatekeeper and generously gave me access to observe the activities of the group. For reasons that will emerge later, membership of a local bat group is by invitation only and I was privileged to be invited into the network of Sid's bat group. During my fieldwork and in interviews with members of Sid's group, I became aware that bat groups often have a common structure where the leaders’ skills and knowledge place them in a position of authority, which they use to regulate group membership. Access to a bat group is important to new entrants embarking on a career in ecology since, in order to operate an ecological consultancy that surveys and monitors bats, they are required to obtain various licences issued by Natural England. The mentoring of new entrants by an already qualified licence holder is the key to gaining a licence. As a reason for volunteering, career advancement sets the, generally, younger bat monitors apart from the older volunteers engaged in surveying and monitoring tasks.

Figure 7.1: A Bat in the Hand – Moments Before Release

The exclusiveness of membership and the authority of the group leader was confirmed to me on an occasion when I had already taken part in several bat

monitoring sessions. I assumed, although not formally invited, that I could join another session without asking permission. When I arrived Sid greeted me by asking me in a semi-hostile tone 'What are you doing here?' It was the sort of exchange that was common between Sid and me, however, I took it as a warning not to overstep the terms of my welcome and that I should be careful to follow the rules of the bat group by showing suitable deference to his authority. After my frosty reception, however, I was made welcome throughout the following six or seven hours when we monitored the bats of the reserve.

During my fieldwork I took part in a number of bat monitoring events. Two of these events lasted for over two weeks and involved monitoring from dusk until dawn or until the bats became inactive. The bats controlled the monitors’ sleep patterns over the monitoring period, and the duration of the monitoring exercise was defined by the life of the transponder attached to the bats. Monitoring usually involved observing bats as they emerged from their daytime roosts, and tracking them with equipment that was able to pick up signals from the transponders attached to their bodies as they hunted for insects from dusk until two or three in the morning and, on occasion, until dawn. Bats are commonly assumed to be predominantly nocturnal, although with the use of modern tracking devices it is apparent that their night-time activity is much more crepuscular in nature. In general humans are absent from the reserve at night, and the monitoring of bats, along with nightingales, offers a rare opportunity to participate in an activity where the volunteers can experience being in woodland at night.

The licensing of monitors to handle bats regulates human-bat interaction, and limits such encounters to the few individuals who are licensed. The regulatory procedures for engaging with bats share similarities with the way that human contact with other wild animals, such as birds and dormice, is organised and controlled through licensing. However, in the case of bats, the holding of a licence is essential to the professional ecologist who is engaged in the commercial surveying and monitoring of bats. The need to obtain a bat licence is, amongst the participants in Sid’s bat group, both career-driven and interest driven and has a considerable impact on the make-up of the group. As the reader

will recall, in Chapter Five Maud highlighted that the younger volunteers’ involvement was mostly instrumentally motivated, and this was also the case for many members of the bat group. Instrumental motives may, in part, offer an explanation of why the bat group has a younger demographic and is not primarily composed of older people. The bat monitors’ minimal relationship with the social networks of the reserve and the Trust can be understood as a consequence of their instrumental involvement in monitoring.

The demographics of the bat group and network are different from that of the coppicers and this can be explained by their instrumental approach to their task and their career interests. Sid, the expert who leads and organises the monitoring activities of the bat group, is over forty years of age, although most members are under forty and many are also under thirty. Many of the younger members of the bat group had only recently entered careers in environmental consultancy. Career advancement, the relatively recent development of technology for bat monitoring, and the fact that it is a night-time activity appears to be attractive to younger participants, whereas the same criteria appears to discourage the involvement of my older informants. However, for these older participants close, intimate contact with the bats themselves appears to counter their feelings about such unsocial night-time activities. All of Sid’s bat group members are in employment, whereas most of the reserve’s coppicers and volunteers are retired. All but one of the bat group were also university graduates and the one exception had gained professional qualifications.

The gender balance in the bat group is approximately equal, although in a typically patriarchal manner, most of the ‘experts’ are male, and there is little crossover membership between the bat group, and the reserve’s coppicers and other conservation volunteers. This contrasts with those involved in dormouse monitoring and its networks, who engage extensively with other volunteers and the networks of the reserve. Amongst the coppicers and other volunteers it was only Kate and myself who committed fully to participating in the bat group’s monitoring activities. Kate’s motivation to engage in bat monitoring was not instrumentally driven as was mine and that of many of the bat volunteers. She was interested in bats for their own sake and was also fortunate to have a

lifestyle that provided her with the opportunity to engage in bat monitoring at night. We were accepted as part of the bat group during the monitoring exercises but unlike our experience as coppicers where we became permanent members of the coppicing network, our links with the bat group did not continue after the monitoring exercise ended. My own and Kate’s access and acceptance into the bat group by Sid and the other members was aided by our having been actively involved in other surveying and monitoring projects.

Other than during surveying and monitoring, bats, like dormice, are rarely encountered at close quarters or ‘held-in-the-hand’; the only exception is when bats are taken from the fine nets that are strung across their flight paths in the woodland to trap them. This is done so that they can be identified, sexed, measured and weighed before being released; this handling gives both the licensed bat monitor and other observers the opportunity to observe bats close up. When encountered in this way bats can have a surprising and unexpected ‘cuteness’ that can create an unexpected affective response from those new to such close encounters with bats. Such a response contrasts sharply with the long held ‘mythical’ fear of bats that is general in western cultures. ‘Meeting’ bats at close quarters questions the basis of such fear. During one evening of monitoring, a number of non-regular participants were experiencing bats at close quarters for the first time. This group stood around Sid as he measured and recorded details of bats’ anatomies. One bat was then released by being placed on the back of his hand. Long-eared bats lower their ears when at rest but in preparation for flight the ears uncurl and become erect. This action of the bat created a collective sigh of delight from the audience, a totally unexpected response during ‘scientific’ ecological monitoring. Thus affective responses to the natural world can occur that are contrary to participants’ expectations.