The greater horseshoe bat is one of the UK's rarest and most threatened bat species, with fewer than 7,000 individuals remaining. Its welfare depends on a network of maternity, hibernation and transit roosts in southwest England and Wales.
Greater horseshoe bat welfare requires landscape-scale management. Individual bats use multiple roost sites throughout the year — maternity roosts, hibernation caves and transit roosts — and require flight corridors connecting these. Road building that cuts across flight lines between roost sites causes mortality and isolation. Renovation of old farm buildings that serve as maternity roosts, without legal survey requirements being fulfilled, destroys irreplaceable roost sites. Changes in farming practice that reduce dung beetle abundance — through use of avermectin veterinary antiparasitic drugs that persist in dung — directly reduce the food supply. Greater horseshoe bat welfare improvement requires coordinated management across entire landscapes, not just individual roost site protection.