A new scientific study has been undertaken by Moors for the Future Partnership and Derbyshire Bat Group to search for evidence of bats foraging on Kinder Scout, the National Nature Reserve cared for by the National Trust in the Peak District.

Audio recording equipment was placed on the mountain plateau over all of the Summer months of 2024 to find out more information about the scale and variety of the bat populations and their hunting behaviour at two high-altitude scientific trial sites – one highly vegetated restored peatland area and one control site which remains in poor condition with expanses of bare peat still present.

In 2020, initial exploratory research recorded several species of bats on the iconic plateau, which was once all a bleak desolate moonscape of degraded blanket bog. At 613 metres above sea level, this is one of the highest recorded locations of bats in the UK.