Chiroblog

Despite the opportunities offered by the identification of animals within their lodges and advances in acoustic detection, capture still essential, especially for evaluation of reproductive status, the identification of certain species, followed by the radio-or the collection of biological samples. The capture is not trivial in terms of risk to bats and because of the increase of nominations, it seemed essential to establish a training system to capture the benefit of bats and bat.

So, sheets 13 and 19 the National Action Plan (PNA) Bats have been drafted to address this lack :

• Fiche action 13 : Development and validation of protocols national survey and monitoring of bat populations.
• Fiche action 19 : Establish a national training system for monitoring and studying the bats, especially for the procedure for issuing authorizations capture.

The design and implementation of these actions are performed by working groups and coordinated by the MNHN (National Museum of Natural History, Paris). The group consists of experienced bat inspired by what already exists in the regional groups and the NFB. Beyond the Plan, these missions are designed to establish sustainable systems that will define a scientific framework to capture in order to best ensure the safety of animals and quality of data collected.

Writing a capture guide and a technical manual to help identifying and taking action (in progress, action 13 of PNA), and implementation of training (actionactionwill synthesize and disseminate knowledge to the practice of capturing in a scientific. This will, other, homogenize the action and the nature of the data, so they are fair and comparable to the other chiroptérologue.

The formation evening nominative, that is to say the same for all persons who wish to develop additional skills to conduct catch autonomy, whether professional or volunteer naturalists. In order not to promote the capture technique as the first approach to discipline, should be to ensure that students have prior knowledge of general biology and ecology of bats and the various monitoring techniques and inventory.

During this training, students will be coached by trainers (experienced bat who volunteered) who complete, first, a national course in order to standardize training and to have joint discussions on ethics, priorities and approach.

For training the trainee will have access to :

• a code of ethics and a note of commitment-a-vis health risks that must be read and signed by the trainee;
• ongoing training in the field, through the use of a book containing all the training objectives, to validation by a designated trainer. The field training will be done during capture sessions set up for scientific and / or conservation;
• a theoretical course in region (or inter-regions according to the application, 2 days, free) according to a national repository which aims to present the context in which science must be a catch, Ethics, regulations, health aspects and the theoretical and technical knowledge.

To ensure that trainees are able to capture an independently after training (book validated and probation completed), should assess their skills as a common repository for consistency and fairness in assessment courses in region (or inter-regional).

To date, the nominations for the capture of bats are addressed to DREAL, MEDDTL transmitted to and signed by the advice of Prefectures CNPN. By region, regional coordinators, groups or the bat CSRPN are available to have an opinion on the application. It was agreed with the MEDDTL CNPN and once the training establishment, authorization to capture issued at the end of the training will be required in addition CERFA 13616*01 "Derogation for the capture or removal, the destruction, deliberate disturbance of specimens of protected species "to any request for exemption. For the time being, the working group decided to focus on training. Any alterations to the processing of exceptions is a complex subject that will be addressed at a later stage in consultation with all stakeholders.

The first step in this process is to identify the trainers. A paper on the role and responsibilities of the trainer was prepared (download here). If you want to take part in this project by becoming a trainer, do you know by completing the form (download here) and return it to your local bat group (Regional Coordinator SFEPM), the MNHN (jmarmet@mnhn.fr) or SFEPM (chiro.sfepm@orange.fr) before 12 June 2012. Once the trainers identified, they will meet in the fall to attend a training course cross.

When all forms have been received and centralized, the working group "to capture training" will make an appointment in close consultation with regional groups and bat DREAL, to agree on a list on its own merits, depending on experience and motivation of bat.

Finally, Book training will be distributed this spring, to all other network, so that everyone can find out. However, validation of targets and the first theoretical courses can only be done once the trainers trained, they will therefore be in 2013.

For more information, Questions or comments concerning the formation, you can contact us by email : jmarmet (at sign) mnhn.fr or telephone : 01 40 79 57 64.

Julie (Project Manager bat MNHN)