NatureScot Commissioned Report 928 - Bats and Licensing - A report on the success of maternity roost compensation measures

This project looked at a sample of 28 cases where NatureScot had licensed the damage or destruction of bat maternity roosts for development purposes. In such cases, compensation must be provided, which usually involves replacing roosts on a ‘like for like’ basis.

It’s assumed that, by doing so, the works won’t affect the local bat population. But there’s little evidence that these so-called compensation roosts are effective, particularly when used to replace maternity roosts.

The aim of this project was to monitor compensation roosts to increase our knowledge of their success.

Of the 28 maternity roost sites monitored:

• 18% of sites had compensation that was being used by a maternity colony of the target bat species
• 14% of sites had compensation that was being used as a non-maternity roost by the target species
• 7% of sites had compensation that was being used by bats other than the target species (non-maternity roosts)
• 61% of sites had no evidence of compensation being used by bats

As part of the discussion of results, the project report looks at various factors that might affect the likelihood of a compensation roost being used.

Pages: 55
Published: 2016

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