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anyone without a licence to:-
1) Kill, injure or handle a bat.
2) To possess a bat, whether alive or dead.
3) To ring, mark or photograph a bat (except
in free-flight).
4) To sell or offer for sale a bat.
However, the law does allow you to tend a
disabled bat in order to release it, or to kill
a seriously injured bat which has no reasonable
chance of recovery.
The most important provision, however, is that
it is illegal to damage, destroy or obstruct
access to any place that a bat uses for shelter
or protection. The only exception is for bats
in the living area of a house. If the bats are
unwanted then the Nature Conservancy should be
consulted who will advise the householder or
if necessary, remove the colony.
Bats in houses are a seasonal phenomenon but
before explaining their presence in a roof, it
is first necessary to understand their physiology.
They are the only flying mammals and are
worldwide in distribution. They are furry
intelligent and social and spend hours grooming
daily. They do not breed until their second to
fourth year, produce a single baby (exceptionally
twins) but not necessarily every year. Clearly
then any increase in population will take a long
time. Mating occurs in autumn or winter, but
females do not become pregnant until the
following spring, so that the young are born in
June or July. The baby is suckled, can fly at
three weeks and is weaned after five weeks,