Commuting habitats

Many people don’t realise that bats use woodland edges, hedgerows, rivers and other linear features like tree-lined footpaths as corridors to commute from one area of countryside to another. These features act as navigational landmarks and can also provide some protection from predators. As bats fly through the night, their echolocation calls bounce off these landscape features, helping the bats find their way to and from their roosts and foraging habitats.

If bats’ commuting routes are severed (for example, by roads) bats can be cut off from their foraging habitats, making it harder for them to hunt and survive. The Bat Conservation Trust is working to make sure that bat friendly features are spread right across the countryside, rather than solely within protected areas like nature reserves.

To enable UK bat populations to flourish, we need a diverse range of habitat so all our bat species can forage, roost and commute.