Winter talk: Bats in the city

Martha Gallardo Galaviz from Kings College London is joining us to talk about her PhD research on how Soprano pipistrelles (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) navigate London’s complex network of parks, rivers, roads, and lights and what this can tell us about urban nature.

Using 13 months of acoustic monitoring across 15 London parks, this talk explores soprano pipistrelle activity and the urban habitats the bats rely on. From weather and lighting to park design and human activity, discover what shapes bat activity across the selected parks. The findings show how both large and small green spaces contribute to London’s ecological network, support bats, and offer insights into how cities can better balance biodiversity conservation with human use.

All welcome to attend!

We meet on the 1st floor of Park House at the University of Reading which is building 8 on the University of Reading campus map. Park House has a bar on the ground floor where visitors are is welcome; bat group members sometimes congregate there before a talk.

If driving, the postcode RG6 6UR will get you on to campus but not to the right building so we recommend using what3words ///return.factories.slows for the entrance to campus, then ///hails.hogs.jacket for car park no. 15 and ///echo.hats.tidy for the pedestrian entrance to Park House. Parking is unrestricted after 5pm.

There is information on buses to campus.