You can now make donations to the Sussex Bat Appeal through Sussex Bat Group’s Just Giving page. All donations will go towards saving a crucial new roost in Southeast England and help the spread of greater horseshoe bats into southeast England.

Sussex Bat Appeal Update – 2 March 2022

Thanks to the generosity of our wonderful donors and supporters, and a small loan, we have been able to raise the £200K needed to purchase this vital new greater horseshoe bat roost in West Surrey. More info here

How the Sussex Bat Appeal started

Once more widespread across Britain, this species is currently largely confined to the southwest of England and parts of Wales.

But this is a good news story!

Thanks to legal protection and the pioneering work of VWT’s founder, the late Hon Vincent Weir, who from the early 1980s made the protection and enhancement of greater horseshoe bat roosts one of his priorities, the population is recovering and starting to spread into parts of its former range.

Please help VWT and Sussex Bat Group make sure they succeed by donating towards the purchase of a building that a small pioneer colony of greater horseshoe bats has recently discovered in West Sussex. You can donate through this Just Giving page.

Thank you so much to all who are donating. It is all adding up and we have now bought the stables. But there is still a way to go….so please share this appeal and help us make the roost weatherproof and secure from disturbance for the future of greater horseshoe bats in southeast England.

Main photo: Roosting greater horseshoe bats ©Martyn Phillis