With Bat Week running from the 24th to the 31st of October, it’s hard to ignore the growing threat local bats face this holiday season. This comes with the lead up to Halloween and Bonfire Night being an especially disturbing time for bats.
The Sealife Trust advise against keeping decorations outside, or for a long time, as fake cobwebs and plastic decorations can easily entangle bats.
Avon Wildlife Trust say bats become very stressed from firework explosions, and that the carbon dioxide and green gases they release are harmful. Additionally, they advise against burning varnished or painted wood as these can release chemicals into the air.
The Bat Conservation Trust say out of the 11 Red Listed British mammals at risk of national extinction, 4 are bats.
A Bristol-based bat rescue charity say illegal disturbance and destruction of bat roosts remains a growing concern, despite bats being among the UK’s most legally protected mammal.
With it coming into the bat hibernation season, which runs from November to March, they say construction and disturbance is a big concern as bats begin to find places to roost for the Winter.
“The usual thing is people carrying out works to buildings where bats are roosting without a licence and an ecologist involved,” said Bristol Bat Rescue.
All bats, including their resting and breeding sites are protected by UK Law. It is an offence to deliberately capture, injure, or kill a bat, as well as damage their roosts.
Loss of natural habitat has motivated bats to seek shelter in man-made structures, becoming essential survival for some species, and the Bat Conservation Trust say the demolition of old buildings, renovations, changes in use, artificial lighting and the move towards air-tight buildings has threatened the possibility for man-made roosts.
The UK government advise that you can apply for a license from National England if you cannot avoid disturbing or destroying a habitat, but Bristol Bat Rescue says these laws require big expenses, and are therefore largely ignored, “it costs a lot of money to do the surveys, get the licence, pay for the ecologist to be present. So sometimes a developer goes ahead and hopes no one notices”.
Bristol Bat Rescue say its “difficult to prove a bat crime” and “often if [people] do get caught, they get a small fine that is still cheaper than having to do everything properly”.
“Some builders move the bats, some just injure/kill them” the charity said, “one guy told me 9 out of 10 roofing jobs he’s done where bats were present they were told to carry on”, even though “as soon as they see evidence of bats they should stop”.
One woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, who has a bat roost in her roof. She says she has witnessed plenty of bat crime on the rise, but is too scared to report it, in fear of the situation getting worse, “we have some pipistrelle bats living under our roof… Things have been so scary and unpleasant that I am not prepared to give my name for fear of the pipistrelles”.
She says she finds Bristol property owners in particular view bats as “pests” and “vermin”, with “misdirected fear of disease”. “These are not young people having a lark. They look like older guys… and they appear to know exactly what they are doing – like they’ve done it before.”
The woman says she has witnessed several forms of bat disturbance, from “nets” to “cases of bats caught in flypaper and left to die.”
A Bristol man, named Andy, who decided to renovate his annex in time for his Halloween party this year, says he came across bats and accidentally disturbed them, “I’d quite like [the annex] done for the upcoming Halloween party we’re going to host, and we ended up disturbing a bat roost that was between the felt and tiles of my roof.”
He said his feelings had changed from the time of the incident to how he feels now. “Not going to lie, I did feel terrible about it, as I am fairly conscious about the ecology”, and “I did feel that my needs to develop the property were greater than the needs of the bats to have their roost, but that was only at the time.”
It was pointed to that the cost of living crisis has contributed to his experience of bat crime, “due to the circumstances, the current state of the country and the cost of living crisis, everyone [who’s] trying to develop property… don’t really have the means to be able to concern ourselves with the needs of bats.”
Andy said that bat crime this November is “almost certainly” worse than last November as “times are tougher now than they were last year.”
Andy’s partner said it was “an accident in the sense that [Andy] didn’t know the bats were there”. “I said have you reported [it]? But he hadn’t, and I understood why he didn’t because he didn’t want to get in trouble”.
“I’m aware they are protected”, says Andy, “but due to the circumstances around the accidental discovery of them, and the needs of my own, I guess I just tried to glance over it”.
With the rise of bat crime, the Bat Conservation Trust have shared that in collaboration with the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit, close to 1000 police officers are being trained to protect British bats from bat crime, getting better at spotting when roosts have been damaged and carrying out charges.
Bristol Bat Rescue say “in recent years there have been cases of offenders being fined for the amount they should have had to pay, and they get a criminal offence against their name. But doesn’t happen enough.”
Andy feels training police on bat crime is a “waste of resources” during the cost of living crisis:
“Given the state of the economy, the state of the country… There’s not really enough resources to start worrying about bats. I know they are protected, and for good reason, however, trees are protected and if trees are encroaching on personal property, they’re allowed to be destroyed, why can’t bats?”
The UK National Wildlife Crime Unit have said bat populations have considerably declined across the course of the last century. They furthermore note that it isn’t just habitat loss affected by human disruption, but also severing of commuting routes, cat attacks, flypaper and chemical treated building materials.
If you cannot have bats in your property, Affinity Water suggests creating bat-friendly spaces in your garden by planting native flowers, avoiding pesticides, and setting up bat boxes.
The RSPCA and gov.uk website both advise calling the Bat Conservation Trust should you find a bat or a roost on your property that will be disturbed.
