Month long festival to help safeguard the rare Greater Horseshoe bat

Residents in East Devon are being encouraged to celebrate one of the region’s rarest and most fascinating wildlife species - greater horseshoe bats.

A month-long bat festival, which begins on Saturday (August 25) features a number of events in the area.

These include bat detecting at Pecorama in Beer on September 14, a ‘bat trail’ walk in Branscombe on September 26 and a Clinton Devon Estates’ farm walk with an underground tour at Beer Quarry caves on September 27.

Pete Youngman, Project Officer for the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, said: “We are delighted with the exciting range of events that have been organised by the project partners which should give lots of opportunities for people to be fascinated by the bats in their local area.”

The Devon Greater Horseshoe Bat Project hopes to reverse the species’ decline.

Further details and booking information for all the events are on the project’s website www.devonbatproject.org/events