Nightlife on Campus

Welcome to our unique exploration of campus' night-time wildlife!

As part of the Light Night 2024 campus installations, the Sustainability Service and the Cultural Institute have worked together to create an audio trail. Entitled “the space between the lights”, the trail celebrates the importance of dark areas for urban wildlife. The carefully curated locations provide a backdrop for learning about the diverse species that thrive in the shadows, and can be found in between the Light Night installations.

This page features facts about the wonderful night-time creatures that inhabit campus home and allows you the chance to hear their sounds...

Bats

A pipistrelle bat flying with outstretched wings

Audio description of pipistrelle bat facts

Bats are incredible night-time hunters, using a special skill called echolocation to ‘see’ in the dark. This allows them to find their prey and fly quickly, even in total darkness.
Bats aren’t blind—they can see quite well, just like we can. So, bright lights at night can make them feel unsafe and exposed to predators.
Because of this, many bats, especially the ones that fly more slowly, avoid well-lit areas, even if those places have plenty of food or safe spots to rest.
Bats need dark, green corridors through the landscape and lots of insects to eat. Keeping gardens dark can help them hunt.
Bats are bioindicators, meaning their presence signals a healthy environment. This is one reason why all 18 species of bats in the UK are protected by law..
To create a wildlife friendly garden and support bats, keep lighting to a minimum, use warmer white lights where they are essential and face any lights downwards.
Bat sounds are usually too high-pitched for us to hear, ranging from 20 kHz to 120 kHz. But with bat detectors, we can lower these sounds to a level we can hear, allowing us to listen in on their calls when they’re active in the warmer months and even hear the buzzing sounds they make when they’re feeding
Bats in Britain, including the pipistrelle bats who live at the University are beginning to hibernate for the winter now, but look out for them again in Spring.

Hear what a pipistrelle bat sounds like

Blackbird

Audio description of blackbird facts

Blackbirds are one of the UK’s most commonly recorded birds, found throughout our towns and cities.
Male blackbirds are black with a bright orange-yellow beak and yellow eye-rings. Females are brown with spots and streaks on their breasts and have brown beaks. They nest in dense shrubs, where the female lays a clutch of blue eggs.
As members of the thrush family, blackbirds eat insects and worms, which they find under leaf litter or by digging in the soil. They also enjoy berries and fruit when in season.
As members of the thrush family, blackbirds eat insects and worms, which they find under leaf litter or by digging in the soil. They also enjoy berries and fruit when in season.
There are about 5.1 million breeding pairs of blackbirds in the UK, with 10-15 million staying over winter. Recently, sightings have decreased due to Usutu virus, a mosquito-borne illness linked to climate change, which is often fatal to blackbirds
You can support black birds by leaving parts of your garden untidy for food sources, putting out water on hot days, and leaving berries or seed heads in the autumn and winter. Record what you see!
Blackbirds, like other suburban and urban bird species, are now frequently found calling in night-time lit conditions, with lighting at night impacting their natural day time calling behaviour.
Their melodious song, often performed from high perches, is a distinctive summer sound here at the University.

Hear what a blackbird sounds like

Foxes

Audio description of fox facts

Foxes are found all over the UK and are now seen more often in towns and cities. This is because they find lots of food in urban areas, either from what people leave out or from scavenging in bins, bird tables, or compost heaps.
Traditionally foxes hold territories consisting of a family group, that is a pair (dog fox and vixen) and their cubs. In places where they feel safe and there’s plenty of food, a group might include several adult foxes.
Usually only one vixen in a group produces cubs once a year in the spring. She gives birth to four or five cubs who are born blind and deaf in a den (called an earth). The earth may be dug by the foxes, or they may enlarge a rabbit burrow or use holes made by other animals.
In urban areas, cubs are often born under garden sheds. A vixen stays in the earth with her cubs for the first two weeks of their lives. By late April or early May, when they are around four weeks old, the cubs start coming out to explore.
Most foxes live around three to four years although have been recorded living up to 9 years in the wild.
Foxes make over 40 different high-pitched sounds, sometimes very loud, to talk to each other, especially between parents and cubs.

Hear what a fox sounds like

Hedgehogs

Audio description of hedgehog facts

Hedgehogs are ground-dwelling and spiky mammals that eat invertebrates especially worms, beetles, caterpillars, millipedes and earwigs. They're great at helping control garden pests!
Hedgehogs are found through the UK, originally in rural areas, but increasingly in our towns and cities. Rural hedgehogs have declined nationally by between 30 – 75% since 2000, so our urban gardens and green spaces are becoming more and more important strongholds for their survival. You can find hedgehogs all over the UK.They used to live mainly in the countryside, but their numbers there have dropped by 30–75% since 2000, so urban gardens and green spaces are becoming very important for them
Hedgehogs are usually solitary, non-territorial, and active at night. They can travel 1–2 km each night, exploring many gardens for food.
In the winter, hedgehogs hibernate, which means they sleep for a long time. They make cozy nests, called "hibernaculums," from leaves under bushes, log piles, or garden sheds.
Female hedgehogs have litters of around 4-5 young between April and September in a nesting site tucked away to keep them safe and away from predators.
You can help hedgehogs by not using pesticides, creating small gaps at the bottom of fences (called ‘hedgehog highways’), letting some parts of your garden grow wild, and adding ramps to ponds so they don’t get stuck
Hedgehogs can be heard making a range of noises including puffing, clicking and grunting!

Hear what a hedgehog sounds like

Peregrine falcons

Audio description of peregrine facts

Peregrine falcons are large, powerful birds with broad, pointed wings and a short tail. They are blue-grey on top and with a finely striped breast and have a black “moustache” on their white faces.
These birds are super fast, capable of reaching top speeds of over 200mph when they dive down to catch pigeons and other prey.
Due to human persecution and the impacts of pesticides in their food chain, peregrines populations had dropped significantly by the 1960s. But now, thanks to conservation efforts, there are about 1,500 pairs in the UK.
Peregrines have now adapted to use tall structures in our towns and cities that mimic their natural upland and sea cliff habitat as a safe place to nest and raise young. Here at the University they nest at the top of the Parkinson Tower each Spring. City lights even help them hunt for bats at night, like in Leeds.
Peregrines can be heard calling to their young or partner from perches high up on structures or circling in flight. Look up and listen out!

Hear what a peregrine falcon sounds like

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We use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to guide our activity. Our work on biodiversity is linked to the following SDGs:

Goal 3: Good health and well-being
Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Goal 14: Life below water
Goal 15: Life on land

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