Status of Daubenton's roosts in the London Region

In the 2006  application to  develop the Seething Wells Filter Beds,  maternity the Daubenton's maternity colony was defined as of ‘Local’ status,  fairly illogical if compared to the ‘Borough’ significance bestowed on the chalk grassland, within the sites SNCI designation; or the Regional Value assigned to the invertebrate communities within the CPM Environmental Statement, 1998 who acted for Thames Water. 

This comment is misleading; improper evaluation is an unsupported statement in literature, as only 4 maternity colonies are known in the whole of the London region at the time of writing. ‘Focus on Bats’ (a Natural England publication) states that this species is ‘uncommon’. 

In London, evidence from the National Bat Monitoring Programme states that there is concern about the status of Daubenton's bats and this point is clearly made on the London Bat Group website as follows:

‘In London , some population trends are apparent that contradict those of the rest of the UK. A 1999 survey which sampled bat activity at sites across the region concluded that there was a significant decline in the overall bat population of Greater London within the preceding decade, reflected most obviously by a lack of records for noctule, Leisler's bat and serotine (Guest et al. 2000). Since then, our soprano and common pipistrelles appear to be recovering well, the decline in noctule has gathered pace and apparently Daubenton’s bat is now also causing concern’. 

The developer's reductionist position redefined the importance as a local feature; stating they can roost up and down the river. This is an unquantified statement, there is no evidence to support it;  attempts to underplay the importance of this unique location. It is certainly not borne out by the Daubenton’s Waterway Survey’s (DWS) which have been performed locally over the last 15 years. 

However, recently we have had some encouraging news about a new maternity colony see new-site-daubentons-bat-maternity.html