{"id":350395,"date":"2026-03-27T10:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T10:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/350395\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T10:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T10:18:07","slug":"cut-the-lights-and-seven-more-ways-to-save-britains-bats-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/350395\/","title":{"rendered":"Cut the lights \u2013 and seven more ways to save Britain\u2019s bats | Conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bats have a bad rep: in a recent survey by the Bat Conservation<\/a> Trust (BCT), 46% of people expressed negative feelings about bats. But just look at them! Bat carer Liz Vinson, a volunteer with the BCT, calls them \u201clittle furry humans with huge jazz hands. They have individual characters: some are divas; some are bone idle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shirley Thompson, BCT\u2019s honorary education officer, has been championing bats since the 1980s. \u201cI still think they\u2019re magic,\u201d she says. \u201cThe more you find out about them, the more you realise what amazing creatures they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Joe Nu\u00f1ez-Mi\u00f1o of BCT offers a few reasons why: \u201cTheir physiology is just incredible<\/a>; they have remarkable healing<\/a>, a really incredible immune system<\/a>.\u201d They are also surprisingly long-lived: one Brandt\u2019s bat<\/a> was ringed as an adult, then caught (alive) 41 years later. Incidentally, bats aren\u2019t blind \u2013 they use echolocation because it is a wonderful tool for hunting in the dark \u2013 and, Vinson adds, reassuringly: \u201cThey won\u2019t get stuck in your hair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Little furry humans\u2019 \u2026 a Brandt\u2019s bat in flight. Photograph: Zoonar GmbH\/AlamyWhy do they need to be saved?<\/p>\n

Of the 11 species of bat for which there are good records in the UK, five are increasing<\/a>, including the common pipistrelle and its higher-pitched, paler-faced cousin, the soprano pipistrelle. Six other species appear to be stable. That sounds like good news \u2013 and it is \u2013 but population monitoring only started in 1999 and there seems to be significant regional variation<\/a> in the fortunes of common pipistrelle populations. Over a longer timescale, genetic research on UK barbastelle bats indicated populations have declined 99% over the past 500 years or so<\/a>. The same is likely to be true of other species. \u201cAlthough we don\u2019t have the data to say it with scientific rigour, we are pretty confident that pipistrelles have declined massively,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez-Mi\u00f1o says, with the most likely culprits being habitat loss and insect decline.<\/p>\n

How can you help?<\/p>\n

Cut the lights
Bats may not be blind, but they do like the dark. \u201cShining artificial light on to habitat is in effect habitat loss,\u201d says Nu\u00f1ez-Mi\u00f1o. \u201cYou\u2019re creating a space that is no longer suitable for many bat species.\u201d Although it is not the most light-sensitive UK species, the latest evidence suggests<\/a> that common pipistrelles are less light-tolerant than was previously believed. If you have a garden, adapt lighting to be more bat-friendly. \u201cLow lighting that\u2019s facing down is probably not going to disrupt bat species very much,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez-Mi\u00f1o says. Only use lighting when necessary (motion-sensitive lights are good for this), and, he adds: \u201cReduce brightness as much as possible.\u201d There is detailed guidance<\/a> on the BCT site.<\/p>\n

Keep your cat in, if you can
Cats are significant predators for bats: a recent study<\/a> found that two-thirds of wing tears on injured bats in the UK (mostly pipistrelles) were attributable to cats. \u201cAt the very least in the summer months \u2013 particularly May, June, July \u2013 if you can keep your cats indoors at dusk and dawn, then that makes a huge difference,\u201d says Nu\u00f1ez-Mi\u00f1o. That\u2019s when female bats are pregnant, and at their most vulnerable. \u201cFemale bats carry only one baby, and that baby takes up about a third of their body weight, so it means that flying becomes a bit harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018If a bat is on the ground, it needs help\u2019 \u2026 here, a surveyor holds a soprano pipistrelle during a bat survey in the UK. Photograph: Gillian Pullinger\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Create a bat buffet
Anything that attracts bugs to your garden helps bats feed: \u201cAll our bat species in the UK eat insects,\u201d says Nu\u00f1ez-Mi\u00f1o. When you\u2019re deciding what to plant, aim for as long a flowering season as possible. \u201cWhen bats emerge from hibernation, they\u2019ll be hungry and wanting to eat lots of insects, and towards the end of the season, when they\u2019re going into hibernation, they\u2019ll be catching lots of insects to build up their fat reserves.\u201d Diverse heights, plants and habitats help feed our fluttering friends: for instance, climbers and hedges encourage flying insects, while trees and shrubs provide food and shelter for larvae. BCT\u2019s downloadable leaflet Stars of the Night<\/a> has detailed season-by-season planting advice.<\/p>\n

Thompson recommends open, \u201cdaisy-style\u201d flowers \u2013 \u201cThey have short florets, so insects with short tongues can feed from them\u201d \u2013 and umbellifers (cow parsley-style, flat-top flowers). If you have space, compost heaps and water \u2013 even the smallest tub pond \u2013 are great insect lures. \u201cEven in a pot on a balcony, you can do something that will attract insects,\u201d Thompson says. You could also build a bug hotel: there are instructions in the Stars of the Night<\/a> leaflet.<\/p>\n

Help a grounded bat
\u201cIf a bat is on the ground, it needs help,\u201d says Vinson. Don\u2019t ignore it: puncture wounds, particularly from cat attacks, can become fatally infected if left untreated. There is detailed advice on keeping a grounded bat safe on the BCT website<\/a>, and a National Bat Helpline (0345 1300 228) you can call. Alternatively, Vinson says, \u201cjust put \u2018Help, I\u2019ve found a bat\u2019 into an online search and it will tell you how to contain the bat and who to call.\u201d A network of bat carers across the UK helps rescue and rehabilitate bats.<\/p>\n

Rule No 1, she says, is never touch a bat with bare hands \u2013 you could damage it, and there\u2019s a very slim chance of rabies transmission. Find an old shoe box or other small, lidded box, then: \u201cGet an old tea towel and carefully place it over the bat. Scoop the bat up inside the tea towel and put it straight into the box.\u201d Make pin-sized air holes and add a milk-bottle-top-sized container full of water. Don\u2019t be tempted to lift the lid to peep as it will probably fly away.<\/p>\n

Build (or buy) a bat box
You can buy bat boxes \u2013 the \u201cKent<\/a>\u201d style is recommended for UK bats \u2013 or follow the easy instructions for making one in the bat box information pack<\/a> on the BCT site. The basics: ensure it has a rough surface for grip and a narrow entrance slit (no more than 15-20mm as bats hate draughts) and use untreated wood. Site your box near good insect-foraging spots such as trees and water if possible, and, obviously, away from any light source. The ideal height is three metres or more, with a south-east aspect, if you are installing a single box. But do put up more boxes if you can to give bats better roosting options.<\/p>\n

A soprano pipistrelle clings to the wall of a derelict building. Photograph: Laurie Campbell\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Advocate for bats in your area
If you are concerned that a local development might affect bat habitat, BCT provides detailed information<\/a> on how to monitor, intervene and advocate for bats in local planning processes.<\/p>\n

Get counting
Signing up for the National Bat Monitoring Programme<\/a>\u2019s Sunset Survey<\/a> helps conservationists assess bat populations. As Nu\u00f1ez-Mi\u00f1o explains, you don\u2019t need a bat detector; you simply record what you see and hear at dusk. \u201cYou can just go out and sit in your garden or local park, and take part.\u201d You could also volunteer for the Night Watch Survey<\/a>, which uses an ultrasonic device about the size of a matchbox called an AudioMoth to capture evidence of bats. \u201cYou leave it out in your garden, a green space, or even on your balcony or windowsill; anywhere you like.\u201d The AudioMoth records what is flying by and you submit its findings \u2013 you\u2019ll even get a bespoke report back.<\/p>\n

Go bats for bats
Whether or not you are one of the 46% who think badly about bats, find out more, then share the love. \u201cGo out on a bat walk, find out about bats, get involved with your local bat group and educate more people about bats,\u201d says Nu\u00f1ez-Mi\u00f1o. If there are young people in your life, get them enthused, too. \u201cKids are often the best ambassadors for bats,\u201d says Thompson, who has edited the BCT\u2019s children\u2019s magazine<\/a> since 1987. \u201cThey are totally without preconceptions.\u201d Most kids like bats, she says; and most kids are right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bats have a bad rep: in a recent survey by the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT), 46% of people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-350395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}