The Herts and Middlesex Bat Group further bat conservation through the following activities:
- organising events and walks to improve public awareness of bats and their problems
- visiting people who have bats in their buildings, to dispel misunderstandings
- enabling Natural England to provide advice to protect bats and their roosts
- organising conservation projects such as bat box schemes
- protecting important sites
- recording distribution, population changes and behaviour of bats
- taking in sick, injured or orphaned bats for release back into the wild up on recovery
Leisler's bat recovering in care.
All British bats and their roosts are fully protected by law. They are culturally, socially and economically important to humans across the World and have lived successfully on our planet for more than 50 million years. They are now a diverse group with more than 1,100 species across the globe. Britain has just 18 species but they are a very important part of our natural heritage. There is a great deal of evidence suggesting that their populations are greatly diminished in the last 50 years due to loss of roost sites, foraging areas and as a result of pesticides and prejudice. The HMBG works to address these issues so that future generations can enjoy these often misunderstood, much maligned little creatures.
