DEVON MAMMAL GROUP - Events

Pips and Pints

23/4/2023

Tuesday, 2nd May 2023 at 8:30pm
Free Event
Beginning at Catacombs Park, Bartholomew St entrance, St David's, Exeter. A guided walk looking and listening for bats around the cemetery and beyond. Will we find some lucky horseshoes?
Suitable for families and those starting out at bat detecting. Some bat detectors will be available but please bring your own if have one. Approx. 2 hours, followed by optional pub stop. Suitable footwear advised, and please bring a torch. Donations welcomed.
Joint event with Devon Bat Group and Devon Wildlife Trust Exeter Local Group.
With thanks to Exeter City Council.

Summer Events - We Need YOU!

22/3/2023

Volunteer Opportunities
Enjoy the outdoors and engaging with others? DMG will be attending the following events this year with a stall or to run small mammal trapping. We are after volunteers from the group to help us with these activities.

Yarner Woods Bioblitz, Sunday 14th May 2023
https://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/enjoy-dartmoor/events/events-list/npa-events/lookwild-at-yarner-wood

Rowden Wildlife Project Open Day , Sunday 16th July 2023

Meldon Wildlife Festival, Tuesday 22nd August 2023
https://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/enjoy-dartmoor/events/events-list/npa-events/meldon-wildlife-festival

If you are interested we would love to hear from you! Please email Charly at charlymead91@gmail.com

If you can't volunteer at an event, please come along anyway and remember to say hi to us!

Christmas Quiz - Wednesday, 7th December 2022 at 7:30pm

5/12/2022

Click here Do you know your Trumpeter Rat from your Pyranean Desman? What's the commonest mammal in the UK? Can rats (or lions) really dance? Join us for our Christmas Mammal Quiz at the White Hart Hotel in Exeter.

Bring some friends to make a team, or join a team when you arrive.

Wednesday, 7th December 2022 at 7:30pm
The White Hart Hotel, 66 South Street, Exeter, EX1 1EE

Members: Free Non Members: £2.50

Please book your space through Eventbrite
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dmg-quiz-night-tickets-467907282277

The White Hart serves food, so some of us will probably eat in the pub beforehand. Here's a link to their menu if you want to join us https://www.whitehartpubexeter.co.uk/menus/to edit.

An Evening of Dormice - Tuesday, 29th November 2022 at 7:30pm, The Kenn Centre

28/10/2022

We welcome Ellie Scopes, Matt Parkins and Charlotte Armitage to join us at one of our DMG evenings to give us an overview of their fantastic work on Dormice.

Ellie Scopes - With the help of volunteers from Cornwall and Devon Mammal Groups, I have spent the summer surveying for dormice using footprint tunnels. My aim was to investigate how dormice are using hedges and scrub areas, which are understudied habitats. In this talk, I will discuss this fieldwork and data gathering process, and touch on the preliminary results, such as where I found dormice.

Matt Parkins - Working as a woodland conservationist on a number of Woodland Trust sites around Dartmoor I have various dormouse monitoring projects running to inform us about optimum ways to improve habitats. Working with researchers from the University of Exeter provides us with a more detailed insight into the behaviour of the species in the area. In turn, this can help us to further improve those habitats as we know more about connectivity across the landscape and essential food sources that benefit dormice

Charlotte Armitage - My work focuses on dormouse ecology in fragmented, upland and marginal landscapes at the edges of their range. More specifically I have been investigating how dormice utilise conifer habitat how best to manage them in the face of climate change, to ensure their conservation at local, regional and national levels. My main study site is Clocaenog Forest in northeast Wales, but I have also been working in Fingle Woods and Okehampton as part of my research.

Tuesday, 29th November 2022 at 7:30pm
The Kenn Centre, 3 Exeter Rd, Kennford, Exeter EX6 7TW

The talks will also be run online via Zoom, so there are tickets available for The Kenn Centre and for Zoom.

Members: £2.50 Non Members: £4.00

Please book your space through Eventbrite
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-evening-of-dormice-tickets-452087414627

Pips and Pints - Tuesday 13th September 2022, start 7:30pm

16/8/2022

Beginning at Catacombs Park, Bartholomew St entrance, St David's, Exeter. A guided walk looking and listening for bats around the cemetery and beyond. Will we find some lucky horseshoes?
Suitable for families and those starting out at bat detecting. Some bat detectors will be available but please bring your own if have one. Approx. 2 hours, followed by optional pub stop. Suitable footwear advised, and please bring a torch. Donations welcomed.
Joint event with Devon Bat Group and Devon Wildlife Trust Exeter Local Group.
With thanks to Exeter City Council.

From Zoo to You: Pine Martens and Red Squirrels in North Wales by Craig Shuttleworth 6th September, 7:30pm

16/8/2022

The Magical Mammals Project is a partnership between Red Squirrels Trust Wales, Clocaenog Red Squirrels Trust and Natural Resources Wales. It is mapping existing red squirrel and pine marten habitat in key areas of North Wales and boosting populations by releasing animals that have been born in Zoos as part of ongoing captive-breeding programmes. In 2020, four pine martens were released near the city of Bangor to boost the regional population

Tuesday, 6th September 2022 at 7:30pm
Online via Zoom

Members: £2.50 Non Members: £4.00

Please book your space through Eventbrite
BOOK HERE

NEW DATE!! A talk by Stephen Powles: "The Cave Elephants of Mount Elgon" 28th September, 7.30pm

7/6/2022

A talk by Stephen Powles “Going Under Ground - The Cave Elephants of Mt Elgon

Mount Elgon, an extinct volcano straddling the Kenya/Uganda border, is home to a unique population of elephants. Consuming a montane vegetation made low in minerals by the leaching effect of heavy rainfall, elephants travel up to 150m into the mountain to “mine” the mineral rich volcanic rock. The talk will also explore the wider natural and cultural history of the mountain and the fascinating theories as to how the caves might have been formed.

Wednesday, 28th September 2022 at 7:30pm
The Kenn Centre, 3 Exeter Rd, Kennford, Exeter EX6 7TW
The talks will also be run online via Zoom, so there are tickets available for The Kenn Centre and for Zoom.

Members: £2.50 Non Members: £4.00

Please book your space through Eventbrite
BOOK HERE

As usual, all profits will go towards the running of our talks, the Harvest Mouse Project, the Small Grants Scheme and maintaining equipment for members to borrow.

Devon Bat Survey 2021 Results - Tuesday 26th April 2022 7:30pm via Zoom

13/4/2022

Credit Mike Symes

By Elinor Parry (Devon Wildlife Trust)
Devon Bat Survey is a citizen science project that has been running through Devon Wildlife Trust since 2016. The aim is to give anyone the opportunity to find out what bats are about near them, by borrowing a bat detector which will record the ultrasonic calls the bats make and are used to identify them to species. The project was funded through Devon Greater Horseshoe Bat Project which came to an end earlier this year, and has now been taken on by Devon Biodiversity Records Centre (supported by Saving Devon's Treescapes and the Halpin Trust). Find out how bats have been doing in Exeter, Seaton, Torbay and South Devon.

Tuesday, 26th April 2022 at 7:30pm

Online via Zoom
Members: £2.50 Non Members: £4.00

Please book your space through Eventbrite
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/devon-bat-survey-2021-results-by-elinor-parry-tickets-312169365977

Watch this space for our 2022 events

2/4/2022

We'll update this section soon with our upcoming events. We're working on bringing you an exciting variety of topics over the next few months! All members will get details of events sent to them as soon as they're confirmed.

Our next talk will be on the 26th April. Elinor Parry from Devon Biodiversity Records Centre will be talking to us about the Devon Bat Survey. More details soon.

AGM followed by a talk by Dr Robyn Grant: “The walrus’s whiskers and the mouse’s moustache: why do animals have whiskers?” 28th April, 7:30pm

8/4/2021

One of the most striking features on the faces of many mammals
are the presence of their long whiskers, or vibrissae. Primarily,
these are used for touch sensing, and can be employed to guide
behaviours such as foraging, navigation, and social interactions.
Most mammals have whiskers at some stage of their life, and these
have a common muscle architecture. While similarities in whisker
position and muscle architecture suggest a common mammalian
ancestor with whiskers, variations in morphology and anatomy
reveal that whiskers are also adapted to function in many species.
This presentation will describe similarities and differences in
mammalian whisker morphology and behaviour. We find that
whiskers are especially prominent in nocturnal, arboreal and
aquatic mammals, that also tend to move their whiskers.
Understanding more about differences in whisker form and function
will provide important insights into mammalian sensory biology.

Dr Robyn Grant is a Senior Lecturer in Comparative Physiology
and Behaviour at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is a
sensory biologist, studying the sense of touch in mammals and
birds. She works closely with museums and zoos to better
understand the functional significance of facial sensors.

Wednesday 28th April 2021
at 7.30pm
This event will be held online via Zoom
Members - £2.50 Non members - £4.50
Please follow the link to Eventbrite to book your place
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-walruss-whiskers-the-mouses-moustache-why-do-animals-have-whiskers-tickets-149585096049

All profits we take will go towards the following:
The running of our talks
The Harvest Mouse Project
Our Small Grants Scheme
Maintaining equipment for members to borrow