ONLINE BAT PAYMENT SYSTEM: Note, please do not make payment until you have received results. We don't charge for failures, so you won't know how much to pay before hand!

Bat populations in the UK have seen a severe decline over the last century.

All 17 species of UK bat are currently protected under British law by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is illegal to kill or harm bats, or to damage or destroy their roosts. In order to protect bat roost habitats an ecological survey must take place before development work can take place on any property with evidence of bats.

Bat genotyping may be used to complement traditional echolocation ultrasound detection for definitive identification of bat species. An advantage of this over standard bat detection methods is that bat identification can take place even in the absence of actual bat sightings. While supplying a useful, low cost service, bat DNA data collected will provide valuable information on genetic diversity within different bat species across the UK. This will help drive future conservation research. The species that have been identified so far can be seen below.

We can identify the species of bat from DNA extracted from guano. Typically, a single guano is used per analysis to avoid mixed species signals, I prefer to be sent at least half a dozen or so guano per sample so that we can repeat analyses if they go wrong, and also have a morphological reference to correlate with our species IDs later. If you do think you have mixed species, then try to separate them out into separate samples as best you can.

To send samples, please see our information page.

It is wise to contact me via email ( ) if you are using the service for the first time to let me know, and then I have your email address on my system.

The usual address for samples is:

Professor Robin G Allaby
Gibbet Hill Campus
School of Life Sciences
University of Warwick
Coventry
CV4 7AL