Bats are the most diverse order of mammals and provide irreplaceable ecological services including pest control and pollination, yet face widespread persecution, habitat loss, and disease that kill millions annually.
Bat welfare is complicated by the colonial roosting behaviour that makes individual welfare inseparable from colony welfare — disturbance of a maternity roost causes mass pup mortality and colony abandonment, affecting hundreds or thousands of individuals simultaneously. Disease events like white-nose syndrome cause death on a scale and through a mechanism (wing membrane disruption during hibernation) that creates prolonged suffering before death. Persecution through intentional disturbance, exclusion from roost sites, and direct killing is motivated largely by misunderstanding — bats are not dangerous disease vectors under normal conditions. Conservation that reduces persecution requires public education as much as habitat protection.