Pipestrelle Bats

There are 3 species of Pipesrelle bats in the UK are and the bats most likely to be seen in urban areas, gardens and parks as well as woodlands and hedges in the open countryside. Summer roosts and winter hibernation sites are almost always within buildings. Any buildings can be used including modern houses where these small bats will find roost spaces behind soffit boards, beneath tiles or indeed any other suitable space that is warm and dry.

View more information and images of Pipistrelle bats on the Arkive website.

Greater Horseshoe Bat

The greater horseshoe bat is one of the largest bats in the UK. During the summer they form maternity colonies, generally in large old buildings and forage in pasture, edges of mixed deciduous woodland and hedgerows. In winter they depend on caves, abandoned mines and other underground sites such as cellars.

View more information and images of Greater Horseshoe Bats on the Arkive website

Lesser Horseshoe Bat

The lesser horseshoe bat is one of the smallest bats in the UK. They prefer sheltered valleys with extensive deciduous woods or dense scrub close to roost sites. Where habitat is fragmented, linear features such as hedgerows and rivers are important corridors between roosts and foraging areas. In winter they hibernate in caves, mines and other cave-like places.

More information is available from CCW on Lesser Horseshoe Bats in Wales

View more information and images of the Lesser Horseshoe Bat from the Arkive website

Noctule 

One of the largest British bats, the Noctule is a fast and powerful flier, often seen out in the open and before sunset on summer evenings. It is rarely found in buildings, prefering the roost in trees. It has declined across Britain, probably due to a loss in the quality of hedgrows and other feeding areas, but also due to the loss of suitable large trees in which to roost.

View more information and images of Noctule bats on the Arkive website.

Bats in buildings

Its quite possible that bats can be living in houses entirely unnoticted by the owners. They don't cause any damage (such as nibbling on wires), they don't bring nest material or food into the roost and are generally very clean animals. The major concern for home owners is that the bats and their roosts are protected by law and so extra care must be taken during any building or maintenance works on the house such as re-pointing, replacing soffit boards or any work to the roof space or roof tiles.

Download the Living with bats factsheet from the Bat Conservation Trust.

You can find out more about all the British bat species from the Bat Conservation Trust website.

Use the navigation bar on the left to explore more species or go back to Biodiversity in the National Park.