Table 1.
List of variables extracted from the ecological impact assessment reports
| Variable | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| General information | Location | County, Local Planning Authority, and UK grid reference of the building surveyed |
| Building type | Type of building surveyed: house, group of houses, barn, industrial building, hospital, school or other | |
| Ecological consultancy | Name of the ecological consultancy that undertook the survey | |
| Preliminary roost assessment (PRA) | Date | Date of the survey |
| Presence of bats | Yes or no | |
| Species name | Scientific name of the species or genus present. We noted as Chiroptera spp. when the identification was not possible | |
| Number of species | Number of species present | |
| Number of individuals | Number of individuals present per species | |
| Roost function | Day‐roost, maternity roost or night‐roost per species present | |
| Type of evidence | Type of evidence regarding the presence and the identification of the bats detected: live animal, dead animal, droppings, DNA analysis of droppings. Note that in this study areas with only remains of insects such as moth wings were not considered to be bat roosts but rather feeding perches | |
| Emergence and re‐entry surveys (ERSs) | Date | Date of each survey |
| Survey type | Dusk emergence or dawn re‐entry survey | |
| Temperature | Temperature at the start of the survey (°C) | |
| Cloud cover | Cloud cover at the start of the survey: none (<5%), partially cloudy (5–49%), cloudy (50–79%), overcast (80–100%) | |
| Wind speed | Wind speed at the start of the survey (Beaufort scale) | |
| Rain | Presence of rain during the survey: none, light rain or heavy rain | |
| Number of surveyors | Number of people that undertook the survey | |
| Sampling duration | Number of sampling hours | |
| Presence of bat | Yes or no | |
| Name of the species | Scientific name of the species or genus present. We noted as Chiroptera spp. when identification was not possible | |
| Number of new species | Number of new species present compared to (1) PRA and (2) other visits that took place during ERSs | |
| Number of individuals | Number of individuals present per species | |
| Roost function | Day‐roost, maternity roost or night‐roost per species present |