The latest National Bat Monitoring Program report, out today, finds that out of the population trends for 11 of the UK’s 17 breeding bat species, none have declined and five show encouraging signs of initial recovery from historical declines (prior to the 25 years since monitoring began).

However, for the first time, NBMP data have been used to examine population trends over a shorter period of five years. And these trends are worrying, as they show that two iconic species may have started to decline. Over this shorter time scale, data from summer roosts show the brown long-eared bat has declined by 11.2% at the GB scale, while the lesser horseshoe bat has declined by 12.3% in England in contrast to a continued increase in Wales.