Bats take centre stage at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology conference 2026

This July, the BATMAN team travelled to Turin, northern Italy, to attend the International Society for Behavioural Ecology (ISBE) Conference at the Lingotto Conference Centre. Bringing together hundreds of researchers from around the world, the five-day conference celebrated the latest advances in animal behaviour through inspiring plenary lectures, parallel scientific sessions, poster presentations, workshops and networking events.

The programme showcased the incredible diversity of behavioural ecology, with research spanning birds, amphibians, insects, fish, reptiles and mammals, including, of course, bats!

Dr Chrissy Stanley presented preliminary results investigating how artificial light at night influences the in-roost behaviour and emergence timing of lesser horseshoe bats.

Dr Camilla Soravia shared early findings on how anthropogenic noise affects the behaviour of lesser horseshoe bats.

Topics ranged from animal communication, social behaviour and parental care to migration, conservation, anthropogenic impacts, cognition, sexual selection and climate change, highlighting the breadth and innovation of behavioural ecology research worldwide. 

The conference provided a fantastic opportunity for the BATMAN team to share our latest findings with an international audience, whilst providing valuable opportunities to exchange ideas with behavioural ecologists from across the globe.

Of course, ISBE isn't just about science! Alongside a packed programme of world-class talks, the week offered plenty of opportunities to connect with fellow researchers through mentor–mentee sessions, social events, karaoke and even dragon boat racing! It was an inspiring and enjoyable week, leaving the BATMAN team full of new ideas, collaborations and plenty of enthusiasm!

Lucy Morison presented a poster exploring the physiological effects of light and noise exposure at maternity roosts.

BATMAN Team at the 9th International Society of Wildlife Endocrinology Conference

Bringing you up to speed, members of our BATMAN team attended the 9^th International Society of Wildlife Endocrinology (ISWE) Conference, held at the Saint Louis Zoo in Missouri, USA, from the 3^rd to 6^th of November 2025. The conference brought together leading researchers and practitioners from around the world, working at the intersection of wildlife endocrinology, animal welfare, reproductive biology, stress physiology and conservation.

As part of the programme, Lucy Morison presented her research exploring the physiological responses of lesser horseshoe bats to anthropogenic disturbance, sharing findings with an international audience of experts in wildlife endocrinology. Lucy was supported by her supervisor, Professor Tessa Smith.

Beyond the opportunity to showcase our research, the conference provided an excellent platform for learning, collaboration and knowledge exchange. We explored innovative approaches to non-invasive hormone monitoring, reproductive biomarkers, physiological stress assessment and integrative measures of animal health. It was particularly inspiring to see how advances in wildlife endocrinology are helping researchers better understand animal responses to environmental pressures and, ultimately, contribute to improving wildlife health, welfare and conservation around the world.

top: Lucy Morison delivering a talk on how to reliably quantify cortisol from lesser horseshoe bats' faecal samples right: Tessa and Lucy at the conference venue

Sharing BATMAN research with the bat community

Tessa, Chrissy and Lucy at the Irish Bat Conference

Closer to home, Dr Chrissy Stanley represented the BATMAN team as a plenary speaker at the Irish Bat Conference at Queen’s University Belfast in March 2026. Chrissy opened the conference with an overview of the BATMAN project and shared some exciting preliminary findings on how the predictability of noise pollution can affect bat behaviour inside the roost. Chrissy was supported by colleagues Professor Tessa Smith and Lucy Morison, who were incredibly proud to see her deliver such a fantastic talk and showcase the exciting work of the BATMAN team. 

The conference was incredibly informative, welcoming and well organised, providing a fantastic opportunity to share our research with an audience of bat experts from across the community. However, it wasn’t just about presenting our research. We were also delighted to discuss the importance of wild bat welfare and involve the conference audience in our research. Their knowledge, experience and enthusiasm provided valuable perspectives that will help us continue to shape our work. We’re looking forward to continuing the conversations, and to seeing where the next bat adventure takes us!

From bat kites to conservation: inspiring the next generation of bat champions

Our bat public engagement events are about so much more than sharing facts about bats; they’re about sparking curiosity, changing perceptions and inspiring people to become the next generation of bat conservationists.

Dr Camilla Soravia and Dr Chrissy Stanley recently took our educational stand to the BioNet Nature Day at Nantclwyd Y Dre in Ruthin, where visitors (including Mr. Badger) could discover more about bats, an often misunderstood animal.

One of the highlights was our fantastic interactive board, which showcased the impact our outreach work is having on the public’s perceptions of bats and their willingness to support bat conservation.

Visitors were able to explore simple, practical ways they can make their own gardens more bat-friendly, from creating suitable habitats to thinking about how their outdoor spaces can better support local wildlife. Most importantly, the stand encouraged people to ask questions, learn more and see bats in a new light. This is extremely important for bat conservation, as people who understand bats and are interested in bats are much more likely to care about them, want to support their protection and make positive changes for wildlife in their own communities.

Seeing children engage in our activities, ask lots of questions and leave our stand excited to learn more is a fantastic reminder of why we do what we do.

This is not all! Professor Tessa Smith and PhD student Lucy Morison held a bat engagement event at Tarvin Woodland for a fantastic nature day on the 27th of September 2025. While the children were creative making their very own wonderful bat kites, our BATMAN team had the opportunity to chat with parents about our research project, answer any questions people had and talk about the vital role conservation plays in protecting our wild bat populations. Not only are these events lots of fun, but behind every conversation and homemade bat kite there is an opportunity to make a difference. We can challenge common misconceptions about bats, build appreciation for these incredible animals and show people that everyone can play a part in protecting them!

Stay tuned to our Instagram, @batman_research_lab🦇

Make sure post notifications are switched ON so you don’t miss where we’ll be popping up next with our BATMAN stand…come say hello, get involved, and be part of the BATMAN experience!

Building connections: our team's journey to Bath, Durham and Padova

In the surroundings of Bath

Because we endeavour to disturb lesser horseshoe bats at their maternity roosts as little as possible, we rarely get to see them up close. This is why Lucy and I (Camilla) jumped at the opportunity to handle and observe bats closely by joining a bat trapping trip that was organised and led by bat conservationist James Shipman.

On the track towards our trapping site, while carrying one of the poles needed for the mist net.

We arrived in the evening and parked on the side of a forested hill in the surroundings of Bath. Here we met our fellow bat enthusiasts, who were ready to brave the rain in the hope to see some bats! After parting ways with a group of ravers (who luckily were not heading to our same cave!!), we started hiking the steep hill, wading through the ferns.

Photo of the harp trap (in this photo we still had to attach the bag at the bottom)

Once at the cave, we waited for the rain to stop while a few members practiced setting up the mist net and the harp trap that we would be using during trapping. These tools are used to safely catch the bats while they are flying. The mist net traps bats in a fine mesh, while the harp trap guides them through rows of vertical strings so that as they hit the strings they drop into a soft collection bag below.

The sky cleared and it was finally time to start trapping. The mist net was set up, with two people always waiting next to it to ensure trapped bats were spotted and freed from the net as soon as possible.

How we saw each other during trapping

The rest of the team improvised a camp not too far from it and took turns to spend time close at the net. If the wait at the camp was ever getting boring, the short track to the net was sure to wake you up - it was the kind of rocky slope you would mostly imagine an ibex climbing, made it all the harder by the looming darkness.

While we waited at the camp, we got to know each other and discuss our respective work with bats (all made it more interesting by the fact that we could not actually see the faces of the people we were talking to!). At times, having the forest around us and seeing fragments of the starry sky, made even the silence welcome.

And the wait was worthwhile – to Lucy’s and my excitement, two greater horseshoe bats were trapped and we had a chance to handle one of them following James’ instructions.

Being able to see firsthand a species that has a similar morphology to a lesser horseshoe bat was great. From the articulated shape of the nose and the small beady eyes to the scanning movement of the ears and the way the wing membrane attaches to each limb.

We also saw a Daubenton’s bat, much smaller in size and very delicate to handle, which gave us a feeling for how diverse bat species can be.

Lucy handling a greater horseshoe bat, - the individual was identified thanks to a metal ring on the wing

Photo of a Daubenton's bat

Given that the conditions were not optimal for trapping, it was decided to wrap up the evening earliesh (it was 1 am!). It was an extremely enriching experience and a privilege to learn from people that are regularly involved in bat trapping. The trek back to the carpark had its own spookiness as Lucy and I realised it is not so easy to remember the way you came when the forest turns dark. We finally made it to the car, and left the cold and damp night for the warmth of our beds.

The National Bat Conference in Durham

The National Bat Conference took place in early September and it is for this special event that we set off for Durham as a team (from left to right in the photo: Camilla, Lucy, Chrissy and Tessa).

We settled in in our university accommodation and we were taken for a tour of Durham, from the green riverside in the evening light to the mesmerizing views of the lit-up cathedral, all accompanied by bat detectors to spot bats and even bat poetry readings by Dr. Briony Hellon-Hughes.

For the next two days, we had the pleasure of listening to talks that tackled bat-related issues and research updates from a variety of angles ranging from conservation, consultancy, monitoring, science communication and bat behaviour. In between talks we could wander among the stalls selling bat-themed crafts and natural history books.

We presented a poster on the behavioural responses of lesser horseshoe bats to noise immediately outside their maternity roost sites. Our preliminary results show that bats in roosts that are exposed to more variable noise are more often alert and rest less at a given time of day. This might suggest that it is hard for them to habituate to noise sources that are less predictable.

During the poster session and throughout the conference we had some great discussions about our work with members of the Bat Conservation Trust, collaborators from the Vincent Wildlife Trust and other fantastic researchers.

The workshops also gave us food for thought, from updates on lesser horseshoe bat conservation, to noise analysis and advanced sound analysis (thank you Daniel Hargreaves, Neil Middleton, Paola Reason and Philip Briggs for holding these workshops!!). These encounters allowed us to lay the grounds for future collaborations with the Bat Conservation Trust, ensuring that our research findings can have a real-world conservation impact.

The social dinner was an especially big event, with good food and full of entertainment. Despite receiving a meagre 2 from the surprised band that was asked to mark our bat-themed haiku during the quiz, we can say we had fun. We all took part enthusiastically to the ceilidh dance (even though doing that immediately after a 3-course dinner was a strong test for our stomachs!).

Finally, the highlight for us was definitely the talk given by PhD student Lucy Morison at the end of the conference. Lucy presented new results from her hormone analysis, confirming that the non-invasive method developed provides reliable measurements of cortisol, the primary stress hormone in bats. Importantly, cortisol levels detected in faecal samples show a clear peak during lactation, reflecting what we expect based on the species’ known physiological patterns.

Behavioural Ecology Meeting in Padova (Italy)

The last update is specifically from me (Camilla) as I left the rest of the team momentarily to head to the Behavioural Ecology Meeting at the University of Padova. This is the university where I completed my Bachelor’s and Master’s so the entire experience had a homecoming feeling.

Here I gave a talk about our project and specifically about how lesser horseshoe bats behave when roosting in a noisy world. Building on the findings from our poster at the National Bat Conference, I talked about how the time bats spend showing different behaviours (resting, grooming, moving, or staying alert) changes with the time of day and month, and the effects of noise on behaviour appear stronger when pups are present.

I then shared some of the main sources of loud noise at roost sites. While some sounds come from natural sources like rain, wind, and calling birds, most are caused by human activity: construction work, machinery, passing jets, cars and traffic, and, more rarely, music, people talking, or dogs barking.

This is only the beginning and a more in-depth analysis is needed to determine which types of noise and at which intensity thresholds cause disturbance to the bats, as well as and the consequences of this disturbance.

After an invigorating exchange of ideas and a bit of warmth from the Italian sun, I headed back to the UK, ready to wrap up our field season 2025 and delve into more data analysis. Stay tuned!

Smart Wearables for Monitoring Wild Bats

Advancements in technology and innovations in animal research enhance scientists' ability to address unanswered ecological questions. These tools enable biologists to assess animal behaviour and test new equipment before committing to the capture, tagging, and release of free-ranging animals. Bats are the only mammals that can fly, making up almost 25% of all mammalian species, with almost 1,500 species worldwide. Bats play a critical role in ecosystems. Understanding their behaviours and movement is key to conservation. Traditional tracking tools, such as radio telemetry, offer limited data resolution and short-range tracking. Emerging smart wearable systems are reshaping this field. Featherweight, energy-efficient, and allowing real-time monitoring, these devices enable unprecedented insight into bat ecology.

Wearable Smart Devices (WSDs) designed for small bats must meet strict criteria: they must be ultra-lightweight (less than 5% of body weight), not restrict movement in any way, be non-invasive, biocompatible (which means that the material can come into contact with the bat’s skin without causing irritation, allergic reactions, toxicity, or other harmful effects), have sufficient battery power for long-term monitoring, and be durable in harsh environments. There are no current devices meeting all these requirements. However, recent advances in flexible electronics, low-power sensors, and energy harvesters will make this possible.

Wearable devices can integrate multiple sensors including GPS (Global Positioning System) for location tracking, accelerometers to give more precise movement data that can be used to understand behaviour, and temperature sensors to measure both body temperature and the external environment. Our research involves investigating how these can be embedded within biocompatible, flexible substrates that allow revolutionary lightweight technology.

Sensor-Integrated Flexible Printed Circuit Board

Data will be collected and processed through analytical software to identify bats’ behavioural patterns, and map flight paths across landscapes. Data will inform ecologist about habitat use, migration patterns, and how bats adapt their behaviour as a result of human activity. Data can currently be collected from days to weeks, depending on battery life and data transfer needs. Devices can then be recovered or remotely deactivated. Power management is a key factor; most designs include small rechargeable batteries. Wireless data transmission or retrieval data storage via satellite or radio communications ensure minimal energy usage and allow real-time remote monitoring.

In our BATMAN project, our efforts aim to reduce device size and weight by combining innovative nanomaterials, bio-integrated flexible electronics, and energy harvester design. Our objectives are to expand sensor capabilities to enable new ecological insights and to develop an AI model which will refine data analysis, allowing automatic classification of bats' behaviours.

Conclusion

Smart wearable electronics are revolutionizing bat research. By enabling power-efficient, real-time tracking of movement and physiology, these loggers will close many of our current knowledge gaps. The integration of wearables technology, energy harvesting, and AI analytics will enable a new era in wildlife research. These tools will not only protect bats but also serve as a blueprint for monitoring other elusive species worldwide.