Britain's 18 bat species are all legally protected, yet declining due to habitat loss, roost disturbance, and the impacts of wind turbines and road infrastructure on their aerial foraging ecology.
Individual bats suffer from roost disturbance when maternity colonies are disturbed during the breeding season - flightless pups that fall from roosts die from exposure or starvation. Vehicle collisions and wind turbine mortality cause acute trauma. The accumulation of pesticide residues in insect populations reduces the prey available to bats, causing nutritional stress and potentially reproductive failure. Bat welfare is deeply connected to habitat and insect population health - the ecosystem services that support bat foraging are threatened by the same intensification pressures that reduce all insect-dependent wildlife welfare.