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Bat project reveals weather affects growth in early life

Abigail Motley, St. Hilda’s College, University of Oxford, was awarded best student presentation at the Mammal Society’s 4th Student Conference held at Lancaster University last week, for her presentation on her undergraduate Final Honours School project on the effects of climatic variation on body size in two UK bat species, supervised by Dr Lauren Harrington at the WildCRU. Abigail carried out her project with the Wytham Bat Project, coordinated by Dr Dani Linton, also at the WildCRU, and found that body sizes of both Daubenton’s and Natterer’s bats were influenced by the weather experienced during the first few weeks of their life.