AnnualReportfor2024Final2025 - Flipbook - Page 14
By 2030, VWT will have:
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developed, tested and implemented a number of cutting-edge
techniques and e昀昀ective conservation interventions that integrate
social science and ecology for VWT priority mammal populations.
Main achievements during 2024
A The provision of purpose-built bat houses and their
impact on lesser horseshoe bats
B Circuitscape predictive modelling of landscape corridors
Photo: Bat Tower at Canada Farm ©Daniel Hargreaves
for lesser horseshoe bats
A The purpose-built bat tower at Station Farm in
Somerset, installed as part of the Green Recovery project,
is now con昀椀rmed as a successful maternity roost. The
tower was built for the lesser horseshoe bats that had
moved out of Canada Farm following their displacement
by greater horseshoe bats. This summer, 67 lesser
horseshoe bats were in residence, and there was evidence
of breeding with lots of pups present.
The six bat towers installed along the Mulkear River in
Limerick in 2022 have been monitored using passive bat
detectors every summer since then for signs that lesser
horseshoe bats had started to use them. Bats were 昀椀rst
recorded using one of the towers in September 2024.
These towers are a signi昀椀cant step towards addressing
habitat fragmentation for lesser horseshoe bats
in Limerick and will help the small population in
this county connect with the larger populations in
neighbouring counties, Kerry and Clare.
Following these successes, the approach will now be
taken forward as a new project on creating a ‘Landscape
for Lessers’ project starting in 2025.
B VWT is working with a number of local councils in Ireland
to identify landscape permeability for lesser horseshoe bats
using Circuitscape modelling. The models identify potential
key pathways and pinch points to better inform planners
on local development. The Circuitscape models produced
earlier in 2024 in Ireland have now been independently
ground-truthed, highlighting the potential of this approach
to identify key sites for conservation interventions.
In Wales, with funding from Natural Resources Wales,
we are also using this methodology to look at landscape
permeability for greater horseshoe bats in Pembrokeshire.
14 Vincent Wildlife Trust Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024
