Overview

• NABU’s annual Batnight features walks, talks and detector-led listening sessions to demystify bats and share ways to support them.
• Insect scarcity tied to land sealing and intensive farming is reducing food for the country’s more than 25 insect-eating bat species.
• Rising temperatures and renovation trends are destroying viable summer roosts, with roof spaces reaching about 50°C and juveniles dying in overheated quarters.
• Species trends vary: Greater Noctule numbers are down, pipistrelles have declined slightly, and an LBV-established Greater Horseshoe Bat colony of roughly 500 in Hohenburg is guarded around the clock.
• Late-summer dispersal brings more bats into homes, and LBV advises calm, lights off, doors closed, windows wide, glove-assisted boxing by day and dusk release, noting the animals are strictly protected.