Installing bat boxes provides roosting habitat for bats displaced by building renovation and tree loss, supporting bat welfare while delivering significant insect control and pollination ecosystem services.
Bat boxes are a practical, low-cost welfare intervention that individuals and communities can implement to directly support bat populations under pressure from habitat loss. Female bats require warm summer roosts for successful pup rearing, and when traditional roost sites in old buildings and hollow trees are removed, populations decline. Installing bat boxes at the right height, orientation, and thermal profile provides replacement roost habitat that supports reproductive success. For species recovering from white-nose syndrome, additional summer roost habitat may reduce crowding in hibernacula that facilitates disease spread. Bat box networks, where multiple boxes are installed across a landscape, provide connectivity and choice that benefits bat populations more than isolated boxes.