Improving habitats and landscapes for greater horseshoe bats
Funding to restore habitat connectivity and robust roosts for greater horseshoe bats
Some of England’s most rare and threatened species have been given a helping hand on the road to recovery thanks to a multi-million-pound grant scheme by Natural England to help recover 150 species nationwide that have declined in number due to extreme pressures such as habitat fragmentation, climate change and invasive species with species abundance falling on average by 52%.
The Species Recovery Programme Grant Scheme supports efforts to improve habitat conditions for our rarest species as well as actions such as propagation, captive rearing, translocations, research and solution-trialling to find the best approaches to enable endangered wildlife to survive and thrive.
Linking maternity roosts
Horseshoes Heading East
This partnership project, led by Vincent Wildlife Trust, will create a viable population of greater horseshoe bats in southeast England through a combination of roost creation and habitat enhancement. Improving connectivity across the landscape and linking maternity sites will improve the breeding success of this rare and iconic species. The project will also support other rare bat species such as the greater mouse-eared bat and the grey long-eared bat.
VWT's vision is that greater horseshoe bats are once again established and thriving in the southeast and that our approach to their recovery can be replicated elsewhere on the edge of the species range.
Horseshoes Heading East is an ambitious partnership project to facilitate range recovery and establish a viable population of greater horseshoe bats in suitable areas of southeast England. We aim to do this through a combination of roost adaptation, habitat enhancement and improved landscape connectivity to facilitate their dispersal, link maternity sites and increase breeding success.
Following on from our success in purchasing and renovating a derelict barn in Sussex [Look what you've achieved!], we wanted to ensure that the species recovery was not solely focused on a single roost. Working with local partners, we identified other sites that could be optimised for greater horseshoe bats and worked together to create a network of summer and winter sites, providing resilience in the landscape. With our partners, we will continue to monitor these sites and support the recovery of greater horseshoe bats in southeast England.
We are hoping to publish our final Horseshoes Heading East report at the end of April 2025 — watch this space!
Roost enhancements
As part of this species recovery programme, VWT staff and volunteers have been trialling different roosting substrates to improve conditions inside roosts for bats to raise their young.
