Campus Nightlife

Unless you are conducting wildlife surveys (either in person or through the use of equipment like camera traps), there is a whole side of campus wildlife that you might miss out on because you may never see it! Our campus is home to a wide range of habitats from ancient woodland to new meadow additions and, as such, it is able to support a huge variety of wildlife including nocturnal and crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk) species.

Whilst conducting camera trap surveys as part of the National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme, our cameras were able to give us an insight into what the wildlife on campus gets up to after dark. Species like badgers, owls and bats that we don’t often get to see were picked up on a number of cameras across campus. This also helps to inform landscape management decisions as we discovered areas being used by wildlife that we didn’t previously know about.

European Badger (Meles meles)

(Image of a badger walking towards the camera trap)

Badgers are the UK’s largest land predator and are one of the most recognisable British mammals. They are found across the UK, with the highest numbers in southern England. Badgers are a species that many people will never get to see in person due to the fact that they are nocturnal and very shy so will try to avoid humans as much as possible. They live in a network of underground tunnels and chambers called setts. Family groups (called clans) of up to 8 individuals can all live together in elaborate setts with several entrances that can extend from around 20 metres to over 100 meters. Badger setts can also be passed down through generations (much like a family home) and some setts have been observed to be over 100 years old! Badgers have been described as ‘opportunistic omnivores’. Their diet mainly consists of earthworms (up to 80 percent) but they will also eat slugs, berries, eggs and even small mammals. In one night, each badger can eat over 200 earthworms! Due to high levels of persecution, badgers and their setts are protected by the Protection of Badgers Act (1992) in England and Wales. The persecution of badgers is often due to high levels of human-wildlife conflict when they are seen as a pest species or carriers of disease however badgers are great at increasing biodiversity and overall woodland health. For example, the diversity of plants like mosses is often greater around badger setts due to the way that they break up compacted soil when they are creating their setts.

(Image of a badger walking away from one of the camera traps)

Tawny Owls (Strix aluco)

There are 4 native species of owl in the UK, the Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Short-eared Owl and Long-eared Owl. The Little Owl was introduced into Britain in the 19th century and also regularly breeds in the UK. All UK owls have evolved to be specialist night-time hunters with adaptions such as soft, sound muffling feathers helping them to hunt almost silently and perhaps their most well known adaption, the ability to rotate their head 270◦ to be able to increase their field of view. Owls have been viewed as symbols of wisdom and intellect in folklore all the way back to Ancient Greece (with owls being associated with Athena) however, they are not necessarily smarter than any other bird! They are very skilled, very specialised hunters, but in terms of intelligence, they can’t compete with birds like crows and jays in the corvid family.

Image of a Tawny Owl (Strix aluco) that has landed next to the camera trap looking into the distance

At the University of Kent, the most frequently heard owl species is the Tawny Owl (especially near Parkwood!) with its distinctive hooting sound that we most associate with owls. But, did you know that the classic ‘twit twoo’ sound isn’t actually made by one bird? It is actually a type of call and response with the female making the ‘twit’ sound and the male responding with the ‘twoo’ sound. Tawny owls are mottled brown and about the size of a woodpigeon. They have a rounded head with no ear tufts and broad rounded wings as well as a short tail. Their short wings and tails help them to be able to easily fly between trees in dense woodland. These owls are the most common in the UK living mainly in broadleaved woodlands (like our woodland on campus). Tawny Owls will mate for life and will often nest in the same tree cavity year after year if they are left undisturbed. They will normally have between 2 – 3 eggs in a clutch and are very territorial, fiercely protecting there areas of woodland from other species like Barn Owls.

(Side profile camera trap image of a Tawny Owl)

Bats

There are 18 species of bats in the UK (17 of which have been recorded breeding here). Bats are the only flying mammals and account for around 20% of all mammal species worldwide and more than a quarter of the mammals in the UK. It is a myth that bats are blind however most UK bat species don’t have very good night vision and so they rely on echolocation (producing high frequency sound pulses and then listening to the returning echoes to create a ‘picture’ of their surrounding). The most common bat species in the UK are the Common and Soprano pipistrelle. These species have both been recorded on campus during bat surveys when they have been seen emerging from their roosts and through listening to their echolocation calls using bat detectors. These two species can be really hard to tell apart from each other and were only described as two separate species in the 1990’s when it was realised that they had distinctly separate echolocation frequencies. Both weigh between 3 – 8 grams, which is around the same weight as a twenty pence piece! Despite their small size they can eat thousands of small insects, like midges, gnats and mosquitoes every night.

(Image of a bat flying away from the camera trap)

One of the other species that we have records of on campus is the Brown Long-eared Bat! These bats are bigger than pipistrelles normally weighing between 6 – 12 grams and they get their name due to their very distinctive long ears! Their ears are nearly as long as their body and allow them to have exceptionally good hearing. They are often referred to as ‘whispering bats’ as they produce very quiet echolocation sounds since their hearing is so good that even without using echolocation, they can hear a ladybird walking along a leaf!

Image of a Brown Long-Eared Bat (Plecotus auritus) flying towards the camera trap

These are just three examples of some of the amazing wildlife that we share our campus with at night. A lot of the data that we have on these species is because of survey techniques like camera traps. Through using tools like camera traps we are able to observe the behaviour of species that we rarely get to see and get and get an insight into what goes on at night with our campus wildlife!

Hedgehog Surveying at the University of Kent

Hedgehogs are one of Britain’s most charismatic species, but they are a species that many people will very rarely get to see. Last term we set up 30 camera traps across campus as part of the National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme and to help us get an idea of what the population of hedgehogs was like on campus. Out of the 30 cameras, 6 caught footage of hedgehogs. These were all the way from Parkwood to Darwin highlighting to us that hedgehogs are making the most of the wide range of habitats that our campus provides! Across the UK, hedgehog numbers have been declining to the point that they are now classified as vulnerable to extinction and so collecting data on our hedgehogs and learning about areas on campus that they use is very important in our efforts to support them.

(Camera trap image of one of the hedgehogs in Parkwood)

Perhaps surprisingly, the cameras that picked up the most hedgehog activity were some of the ones on central campus. Hedgehogs are mostly insect eaters, and they have been able to adapt to living in more urban areas where there are hedgerows and other covered areas as they like to use these for protection as they are moving around and will avoid travelling across very open areas if possible. Hedgehogs can have very large home ranges and they can travel between one to three kilometres per night in the search for food and mates. This is why places like the University of Kent campus can be ideal for hedgehogs as they get the cover that they would in gardens but without the barriers of fences or walls blocking their travel routes. Our camera trap that had the most hedgehog activity was under an apple tree and the hedgehogs and other wildlife could be seen enjoying the apples that had fallen on the ground!

(Camera trap image of one of the hedgehogs trying to eat a fallen apple)

While the camera trap surveying was taking place, we also had 3 hedgehog footprint tunnels set up at Kent Community Oasis Garden to see if we could get a more in-depth picture of the hedgehog activity at the site. Hedgehog tunnels are a non-invasive tool to look for the presence of hedgehogs in a habitat by identifying their footprints. The tunnels work as the hedgehogs walk over panels that have animal safe vegetable oil and charcoal to reach the hedgehog food inside and then leave their footprints on the paper on either side of the food.

(Images of a student volunteer helping to set up a hedgehog tunnel and a tunnel set up and ready for surveys)

We had the tunnels out around COG for 2 weeks and they provided us with evidence of hedgehog activity around the site. One of the Biodiversity Boosters also had a focus on hedgehogs, why they are beneficial to gardens and how we survey them. Student volunteers were able to learn how to set up a tunnel as well as review the survey sheets from the night before.

(The top image shows hedgehog footprints walking across tunnel survey sheets. The bottom image shows what many of our survey sheets at COG looked like with a very high level of activity of other small mammals like wood mice, shrews and voles)

If you would like to help hedgehogs on campus, please make sure you dispose of any litter correctly, and if driving please obey the speed limits and slow down at night. To help hedgehogs at home please take a look at the advice from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.

Biodiversity Booster Blog: Bug Hotel Creation

(One of the completed Bug Hotels made with recycled wooden pallets, terracotta pots, collected leaves and Jerusalem Artichoke stems)

According to the Wildlife Trust, an average garden space in the UK, has the ability to accommodate more than 2000 species of insects. At Kent Community Oasis Garden (Kent COG), a lot of work goes in to increasing the habitat diversity in order to increase the overall number of species that use our site. Creating habitats to support invertebrates is important as they play a key role in pollination, soil health and natural pest control as well as being a vital part of the food chain supporting the other wildlife that lives at Kent COG.

For the forth Biodiversity Booster session, we ran a bug hotel creation workshop where student volunteers were able to create new bug hotels out of the Jerusalem Artichoke stems that we had left after our harvest of this years’ bumper artichoke crop! During the session, they were also learning about the importance of supporting the invertebrates in garden spaces as well as discussing what species they were likely to see using these new habitats.

(Some of the Jerusalem Artichoke Stems that were cut down into more manageable sizes for making bug hotels)

As well as being grown as food for the people and the volunteers at Kent COG, Jerusalem Artichokes are actually a very important plant for supporting wildlife both as a food source and through providing habitat. The flowers, which bloom in late summer an autumn, provide an important nectar and pollen source for pollinators like bumblebees, butterflies and hoverflies. The seeds are eaten by goldfinches and when cut, the stems can provide a useful habitat for solitary bees and ladybirds.

For this Biodiversity Booster Session, the student volunteers made two different types of Bug Hotel utilising a range of reused materials as well as the Jerusalem Artichoke stems. They were also able to add to the existing bug hotels and hibernaculum that we already have on site to full any gaps and add more micro-habitats within those areas. Adding things like deadwood, leaves and loose bark to the bug hotels means that they will be able to support a large variety of invertebrates by mimicking a variety of natural habitats. The bug hotels were also placed in areas of Kent COG that had different light levels and a range of nectar-producing plants.

(Bug Hotel in progress and a table full of bundles ready to be placed around the garden)

 

Autumn Pollinators: Moths On Campus

(A table full of moths!! This photo was taken during our second moth survey. Each line is a different species, but we ran out of table space and pots!!)

This year, as part of my placement I am going to be surveying and recording as many different species as I can across campus. One of the species that I am going to be regularly recording throughout the year is moths!! We have around 2500 species of moths in the UK and according to Kent Moths, 2167 of these species have been recorded in Kent. So far, at the University of Kent we have recorded 223 species of moths using our site.

Moths are a very important pollinator, as they are the main invertebrate pollinator at night. Additionally, compared to butterflies, many more UK moth species are active throughout late Autumn and Winter since they have adapted to be able to fly with a colder body temperature. Due to their hairy bodies, they are a very efficient pollinator as pollen is able to easily stick to them and plants like Honeysuckle, Evening Primrose and Ivy rely heavily on the pollination by moths.

(From left to right: Green-Brindled Crescent, Sallow, Merveille du Jour)

To carry out moth surveys we use a large bucket trap and a type of moth trap called a Heath Trap. These traps work through setting up a very bright light which the moths fly towards and then get directed down into the main collection area that we fill with recycled egg cartons. The moths then stay there overnight, and we are able to come back in the morning to conduct our survey and record the species that we can see before we release them. This process does not harm the moths as they stay warm and sheltered in the egg boxes and then are released where we found them into the cover of bushes so they can hide away for the rest of the day.

(This is one of the bucket traps that we used, set up and ready for a night of attracting moths!)

On campus we have a large variety of habitats and so are able to support a diverse range of moth species. Kent Community Oasis Garden is especially important for moths as a lot of work goes into increasing the biodiversity of that area including planting with pollinators (like moths) in mind. On Wednesday 22nd October as part of the Biodiversity Booster series, I ran a session on moths and we were lucky enough to have caught nearly 50 individual moths overnight so we had a pretty good display to show off!! The session was enjoyed by student volunteers and community members and was a great way to highlight the range of species that Kent Community supports that people don’t normally get to see.

(On the right is a photo of student volunteers at a Biodiversity Booster Session enjoying seeing the moths)

In my first month of placement, I have carried out 2 moth surveys and recorded just under 90 individuals which equated to 32 species of moths 18 of which had not been recorded on campus before. I am looking forward to continuing these surveys throughout my placement and recording many more species!!

 

(Two very happy conservationists after a successful survey)