VWTImpactReport28Oct2025PT - Flipbook - Page 11
Conservation innovations
Focusing on some of Britain and Ireland’s most elusive
mammals, VWT has continually needed to think outside
the box and to pioneer and adopt new technologies to
advance its work. Combined with 昀椀eld expertise, these
technological innovations enable us to obtain more
accurate data, which is key to better understanding
and protection of our threatened species.
Studying bats in particular presents unique challenges.
Small, nocturnal and capable of 昀氀ight, bats epitomise
the di昀케culties faced when detecting and tracking wildlife.
The most basic question is often: is the species even
present? The fast-evolving 昀椀eld of molecular ecology
has opened exciting new avenues and VWT has embraced
these innovations through active collaborations with
universities. To answer this basic question more e昀케ciently,
VWT is trialling the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) to
locate rare tree-roosting bats, which may use a number of
di昀昀erent trees in a woodland, by swabbing the entrances
of potential roost sites. Preliminary results are highly
promising and suggest that this method could drastically
reduce the time and resources needed to locate and
monitor these bats, o昀昀ering a non-invasive, scalable
solution for 昀椀eld surveys.
The most basic question is often —
©Daniel Hargreaves
is the species even present?
Vincent Wildlife Trust 50 Years Impact Report 2025
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