Bats provide billions of dollars in pest control services to agriculture, but their colonies face threats from white-nose syndrome, wind turbines, and habitat loss that have cascading welfare and ecological effects.
Bat welfare operates at a scale that is easy to underestimate. With billions of individuals across thousands of species, bats represent a major component of global wildlife welfare. White-nose syndrome causes particularly alarming welfare harm: infected bats arouse frequently during hibernation, depleting critical fat reserves, and experience metabolic crisis before dying. The disease spreads rapidly through colonies and has caused 90-100% mortality at affected sites. Wind turbine collisions cause acute traumatic injury and death. Habitat loss from deforestation and development removes roosting and foraging sites. Protecting bat welfare requires disease management (vaccine research, biosecurity protocols), wind turbine siting and operational modifications, and roosting habitat conservation through bat box programs and building-integrated roost design.