Biodiversity
Action
Plan
Conservation of Bat species
Bats have benefited from strict legal protection, direct conservation action and public awareness raising. Habitat creation and enhanced habitat management can provide the right conditions to help maintain the recovery of bat populations.
Habitat Features
- Bats are found in a range of habitats including urban areas, farmland and woodland, and near water.
- Bats rely on an abundant supply of flying insects and sheltered areas in which to catch them.
- Bats also require safe roosting sites in which to raise their young and to spend the winter in hibernation. They have adapted to roost in built environments, including barns, houses, bridges, tunnels, shafts and culverts, as well as crags, rock faces and trees.
- Hedgerows and other linear features with trees provide sheltered corridors for bats to travel along.
Factors causing loss or decline
- Bats are sensitive to changes affecting insect prey, as well as damage to or loss of roosting sites and the sheltered routes they use to travel.
- Changes in land use, drainage, pesticides and farming can result in loss of insect-rich habitats, wetlands and meadows.
- Roost sites can be lost by building works, and by cutting back trees; new types of roofing membrane can entangle and kill bats
- Weather can affect bats’ hibernation and breeding success, and food availability.
- Artificial lighting can reduce the appeal of foraging areas and sever commuting routes
Advice and information:
Bat Conservation Trust
South Yorkshire Bat Group
Natural England
Legal protection.
All species of bat and breeding or resting sites (roosts) are protected under the Conservation of Habitats and Species (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended)
It is an offence for anyone intentionally to
- kill, injure or handle a bat,
- to possess a bat (live or dead),
- disturb a roosting bat,
- sell or offer a bat for sale without a licence;
- to damage, destroy or obstruct access to any place used by bats for shelter, whether present or not.
Licences are required from Natural England for work with bats and their roosts.
Good practice in conservation management for bats
- Maintaining habitats that support abundant flying insects and provide sheltered areas for foraging. These can include open water, wooded areas, parks and gardens.
- Maintaining places where bats have roosts for breeding and hibernation; providing access to roof spaces and other built features, and preserving old trees with hollows and holes for roosts.
- Maintaining sheltered hedgerow or shrub/tree lines for bats to feed and travel along.
- Avoiding or reducing artificial light spill on roost sites and across commuting and feeding habitats
- Our gardens can be an important source of food, water and shelter and putting up bat boxes may help in certain locations.
- Above all if you have roosting bats do not disturb them in their roosts.
Bat species conservation