h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: British Bats - A4433717
Author: Skankyrich - U931109

I've finally got this finished, after only eight months

Or is it finished? You tell me...

Look good, ill read it again when im more awake.

YAY! A Bat Entry that can backlink to Batman! Wee! excellent!!

Oh and the Entry is brilliant too. Concise and informative and really easy to read. Loved it. I'm probably going to go 'batting' with my daughter over the summer, nice to know what's best to look out for!

MJ

The only minor quibble I have is about the pricing of the 'bat-detector' (surely a great way of sliding in a link to Batman )

Seeing as you have an Entry about British Bats I think that silly euro thing is used in some of Britain too. Or you could just say, 'in the UK they usually cost fom £50', or something like that. Maybe Know what I mean?

Very good.

There's a London Bat Group? Something I didn't know...

Still not a fan of bats so I'll just say well done on first read-through I just spotted this:
1993-99
=
1993 - 99

other than that, it looks to me!

Annie

I know nothing about bats, but I thought this was a superb entry - it's comprehensive and is written in a really engaging style. Spotted one typo:
poulation -> population
but that's it.

Great piece of work, Skankyrich! Damn, wrong smiley...

1993-99
=
1993 - 99

No it doesn't - leave it as it is, it's fine!

Thanks guys! I've made tweaks to those sentences and changed the spelling mistake.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, but not half as glad as I am to have finished it

Haven't got time to comment properly, two very quick things -

I think some of those footnotes could be worked into the entry - the definition of DEFRA for example - I'd call it its full name, then put the intials in brackets. Could also be done the other way round, but I like to spell things out the first time, then abbreviate late, and also any chance you could squeeze a link (or reference) to this in? A765678

Looking forward to coming back later to see why Newgate deserves a link!

Not footnotes again, Mina? You'll get a reputation

I've worked two of them back in, but I'm leaving the DEFRA one for now at least. It's not a key organisation in the piece (if I'd written 'LBG' footnoted as 'London Bat Group', I would agree with you) and to give it its full title would make the sentence unnecessarily wordy. The important point isn't the organisation, but that the bats set a standard for environmental cleanliness. It's down to personal taste; I'd sub it this way, you probably wouldn't.

I've added your page as a reference, as I couldn't find an appropriate place to link to it from the text.

Good stuff rich. Couple of things I noticed:

posses - possess
high-pitches - high-pitched
Midge; and Nathusius' pipistrelle (subheader) - the punctuation here looks a bit iffy - same with "Common or brown;"

Would it be worth mentioning exactly how river quality is inferred from Daubenton's bat populations?

SB

Jack Naples said:
1993-99
=
1993 - 99
<>

May I respectfully request you read this page: A266131
Specifically: Header Numbers, Dates and Times

In the case of number series such as 'in the years from 1998 to 2000' and 'Serves 4 to 6 persons', if you'd like to use hyphens to indicate the sequence, annotate the numbers like this 1998 - 2000, and 4 - 6, ie a combination of hyphens and gaps.

Oops, long time since I was a sub-ed. Though for what it's worth, hyphens with gaps do look ing daft.

Thanks, Your Highness - typoos sorted. Regarding the punctuation, I was trying to put two species on one line while keeping the Latin names clearly seperate too. I've changed it to a simple 'and', is that better?

I agree with Jack on the look and Annie on the style. But as I've rewritten the sentence anyway, it's not relevant any more

Maybe a slash would be better? Just thinking aloud though, don't change it unless anyone else says anything.

By the way - thought I'd nipped that lark in the bud Rich!

I think it's as clear as I wanted it to be now - I think a slash would look untidy. If it's obvious that I'm talking about two species in one paragraph now, I'm happy with that.

As far as the other thing goes, I will remain an official subject of your reign until such time as an alternative monarch is autocratically imposed upon me. Sorry, but I just don't buy all this 'citizen' stuff

Ref. Nathusius' Pipistrelle, don't know whether it's worth specifying that these are normally found between Holland and Latvia. Some time ago (don't have a date I'm afraid) two roosts containing 15 bats were discovered in Antrim, N. Ireland, by scientists from Queen's Uni, Belfast. The bats were recorded making mating calls, raising hopes that they could be starting to breed. The same calls were recorded by scientists in Bristol.
Hitherto, only a handful of NP's had been spotted in GB, usually in the South East or on N. Sea oil platforms. during migration.

n.b. If the mouse-eared bat was extinct, it would've been the first British mammal to die out since the wolf

Ref 'Daubenton's bats are one of only two species in Britain believed to carry European Bat Lyssavirus, a form of rabies'.

The other is the serotine. Indeed, of the 32 bat species found in Europe, to my knowledge the serotine is the only one found to be infected with the rabies virus. By ill luck, this is also the species which is found most close to human habitation (as you say, in attics and barns). Usually extremely shy, it tends to lose all fear once infected.

Dunno if it's worth saying anything about their sizes 3e.g. Dubenton's weighs about 8g. It's certainly worth pointing out that tyhe noctule is the largest bat in Britain with an average weight of 32g and a wing span of 36 cm.