Bats face multiple welfare and conservation threats including white-nose syndrome, habitat loss, wind turbine collisions, and persecution based on unfounded fears.
Bats affected by white-nose syndrome suffer progressive fungal infection of their wing membranes and muzzle during hibernation, causing arousal from torpor that depletes fat reserves and leads to starvation before spring. The disease process is slow and involves prolonged physiological distress before death. Wind turbine barotrauma — where the pressure differential near spinning blades ruptures lung tissue — causes acute internal injury and death. Bats that are deliberately killed in roosts die in ways that cause suffering to individuals and typically destroy entire maternity colonies, including dependent pups. Bats deserve welfare consideration both as individual sentient animals and as keystone ecological species whose loss cascades through ecosystems.