A Flintshire detection dog company has solved a batty problem that’s been puzzling the wind farm industry and conservationists for years.

Now, Wagtail UK have pioneered a way of assessing why so many protected species of bats across the UK and Europe are dying close to the turbines.The firm, based near Holywell, have trained dogs to find the bodies of dead bats – no easy task in difficult upland terrain where most windfarms are sited. What’s more, surveys have shown that most bats don’t die from colliding with the immense blades of the giant turbines – their sonar is far too good for that – but from the disruption of the air pressure that they cause.

Louise Wilson, a director of Wagtail UK and their head of training, said: ‘It is very similar to the bends which happens to divers when they come up to the surface too fast. Bats don’t have rigid lungs as birds do. They can’t cope with the sudden changes in air pressure and they literally explode their lungs – it’s called barotrauma and surveys on the effects on bats have been carried out in Canada. Bats are protected species and we need to know the scale of the problem so steps can be taken to prevent bat deaths and that means finding out how many bats are dying. That’s where the dogs come in because they can find these tiny bodies by scent where humans would just walk straight past them buried in thick grass or undergrowth. Often the handler still won’t see them so we have trained the dogs to actually indicate more closely by putting their nose right on the bat. It is important that they don’t bite or eat the bats though so we make sure they’re trained not to.”

The dog trained to find the bar carcasses is Twister, a six-year-old springer spaniel Louise has had since he was six months old when he had been abandoned at the side of a road.

Wagtail UK was founded by ex-RAF Police dog handler Collin Singer in 2003 and trains dogs for a range of duties including work with the UK Border Agency where they and their Wagtail handlers are on constant duty searching for immigrants at the Channel ports of Northern France.
They also train dogs in drug and explosive detection and have been widely iused by police forces in England and Wales but the use of dogs ands their incredible sense of smell in wildlife protection is seen as a growth area.

For more information regarding Wagtail UK Ltd and the use of conservation dogs within the UK contact Louise Wilson on info@wagtailuk.com or louise.wilson@wagtailuk.com or go to www.wagtailuk.com

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