Among the latest immigrants crossing the Channel are several that have been received, unlikely as it may seem given our ongoing cruel and reactionary media culture, with warm approbation. If you missed this news, it’s possibly because the commotion was at ultrasound frequency, but a couple of greater mouse-eared bats have been discovered in the south-east of England, one of them in the South Downs National Park in Sussex.
The greater mouse-eared is the largest bat species native to the UK, with a broad European distribution. Significantly, it was declared extinct here in 1992 – the only terrestrial mammal totally extirpated since the wolf in the 18th century. However, in 2002 a single hibernating male was discovered in a tunnel in West Sussex, and was subsequently recorded at the same secret location every winter until 2023.
That year, a second bat was found nearby, and this winter has seen the discovery of two hibernating greater mouse-eared bats, one in Dover, and one female of breeding age in the South Downs. This has led to speculation that the species may be starting to recolonise from Europe, or that perhaps there’s a remnant breeding colony in south-east England.
Has the greater mouse-eared bat re-established itself here?
While these discoveries certainly give cause for optimism, there are several caveats to be aware of before this species, currently listed as critically endangered in the UK, can be considered to be reestablished. Firstly, the resident male found in 2002 hasn’t been seen since early 2023, and if he’s still alive he’s unlikely to live much longer. The two individuals detected this year, in Dover and Sussex, are unlikely to encounter each other to breed.
Several broader issues ought to be addressed in order to facilitate a successful recolonisation of Britain. While climate change may help European species shift their distributions further North, the UK is still rather a hostile environment for these bats. Pesticide use is still widespread on UK farmland, including within National Parks. This has detrimental impacts on insects such as grasshoppers, crickets and beetles on which the bats feed.
Coinciding with the precipitous decline of greater mouse-eared bats, the UK lost 50 per cent of its hedgerows between 1950 and 1990 – these were important linear features often used by bats as habitat corridors.
Another key variable is large roosting and breeding sites. Greater mouse-eared bats roost colonially, usually in old buildings or caves. While caves are naturally limited in supply, the demolition or renovation of old buildings and the move towards building standards which rightly emphasise airtightness and heating efficiency is reducing the availability of anthropogenic structures to bats that might use them, including the greater mouse-eared. Planning policy hardly looks set to offer any mitigation of this trend; quite the opposite.
Is the government helping?
The prospects for bats in Britain don’t look encouraging under the current Labour government. Even despite 14 years of environmental wreckage under the Tories, Keir Starmer and many of his ministers have in recent months managed to define themselves by their open disdain for the environment and those who seek to protect it: quite a feat after Truss and Sunak.
Starmer famously ditched Labour’s £28bn green investment pledge, has bragged of his hatred for tree-huggers, and plans to make it more difficult for environmental campaigners to obtain judicial reviews of major infrastructure projects. While there’s assuredly a great deal of unjustified nimbyism in Britain, and we desperately need to be building more clean energy infrastructure and social housing, Labour’s attempts to block any attempts to challenge development demonstrate a callous disregard for environmental impact and accountability.
Then there’s Rachel Reeves’ new obsession with airport expansions – in a climate emergency, you’d struggle to find a more idiotic idea than this. And specifically apropos bats, Reeves gave a speech about economic growth last Wednesday during which, in addition to affirming her support for Heathrow expansion, she stated that private developers ‘would not need to worry about bats and newts’.
Like Starmer and his so-called Environment Secretary Steve Reed, Reeves is telling us upfront that she prioritises the short-term profits of capital over and above the living world. While the Tories’ culture wars against net-zero gained widespread populist traction amongst the climate denying Right, surely only politically inept halfwits feel the need to pick fights with bats – Labour is likely to pay a price for it.
For the few vagrant greater mouse-eared bats turning up in Sussex, and the even fewer known to have taken up permanent residence here, the odds of a breeding population re-establishing look as slim as ever. Even if Labour has a sudden reformation – perhaps after Keir Starmer is visited by the ghosts of environmental past, present and future – and decides to govern as if we were in a climate and biodiversity emergency, recolonisation by these bats may have to be aided by reintroductions, in addition to addressing the other issues mentioned above.
Nevertheless, the increasingly regular appearance of greater mouse-eared bats shows not only that as the climate changes, Britain is becoming more hospitable to many continental species, but also that if we provide the space for wildlife, restore habitats and stop assaulting them with chemicals and sewage, some lost species could return of their own accord.
The South Downs could yet become the epicentre for these bats’ reoccupation of Britain; let’s keep our wings crossed.
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