--- title: Bats near home: pipistrelles, noctules, bat boxes and why never to pick one up — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Bats near home: pipistrelles, noctules, bat boxes and why never to pick one up», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: On a summer evening in Britain, a tiny shape flits round and round a street lamp. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Bats near home: pipistrelles, noctules… # Bats near home: pipistrelles, noctules, bat boxes and why never to pick one up Lesson 315 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/0/) — On a summer evening in Britain, a tiny shape flits round and round a street lamp. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/1/) — It is not a moth or a bird but a pipistrelle, a bat lighter than a pound coin, snapping up insects drawn to the light. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/2/) — About 17 kinds of bat breed in Britain. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/3/) — They hunt by sound, shouting clicks too high for us to hear and listening for the echoes; a bat detector turns those clicks into sounds we can hear. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/4/) — British bats raise one baby a year in summer roosts in roofs and trees, and sleep through winter in cold places. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/5/) — Because they lose roosts easily, the law protects them and their roosts. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/6/) — Bats are gentle and useful, but a bat you find on the ground needs a trained helper, never bare hands: tell a grown-up, who can call a bat helpline or a vet. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/7/) — The common pipistrelle is Britain's commonest bat; it weighs about 5 grams, less than a pound coin, may eat thousands of tiny insects in one night, and can squeeze through a gap about 1 centimetre wide. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/8/) — In the 1990s scientists noticed some pipistrelles called at a higher pitch than others; studies showed they were two kinds, the common and the soprano pipistrelle. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/9/) — The noctule is one of Britain's biggest bats; it flies high and fast over the treetops, often before it is fully dark, roosts in old woodpecker holes, and its calls are low enough that some children can hear them. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/10/) — When a bat closes in on an insect, its clicks speed up into a buzz that can be well over a hundred clicks a second, because more clicks give more echoes and a sharper picture of where the insect is. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/11/) — A bat box is a wooden box with a narrow slot at the bottom; it should be put high up, out of reach of cats, catching some sun, and boxes are often put in groups facing different ways so bats can choose warmer or cooler ones. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/12/) — In Britain it is against the law to disturb roosting bats or open a bat box without a licence; trained bat workers with licences check the boxes and count the bats. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/13/) — A bat on the ground in daytime may be hurt, cold, tired or a lost baby; never pick it up with bare hands, because some British bats carry a rare rabies-like virus and only trained, vaccinated people should handle them. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/14/) — A bat caught by a cat needs a rescuer even if it looks fine, because tiny wounds from cat teeth can become infected and kill the bat days later; cats catch many thousands of bats in Britain each year, reported. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/15/) — British bats hibernate in winter when insects disappear, slowing their hearts and cooling down; waking them uses up the fat they need to last until spring. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/17/) — The greater horseshoe bat has a nose leaf shaped like a horseshoe that beams out its calls; some bats call through their noses and others through open mouths. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/18/) — Bats do not get tangled in people's hair; a bat swooping near your head is most likely catching insects flying around you, and its echoes can dodge a thread. - ← previous: [Bats of the world: flying foxes, vampire bats, the bumblebee bat and tent-makers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/314-bats-of-the-world-flying-foxes-vampire-bats-the-bumblebee-bat-and-tent-makers/) - next →: [Rodents: the biggest group of mammals and their ever-growing teeth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/316-rodents-the-biggest-group-of-mammals-and-their-ever-growing-teeth/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)