The fight to save Croatia’s 34 bat species

ZAGREB, 4 Sept (Hina) – With 34 and possibly more bat species, Croatia is among the European countries with the greatest biodiversity of the bat fauna but they are in a bad or inappropriate state of preservation, the Environmental Protection and Green Transition Ministry said on the occasion of International Bat Night on Saturday.

International Bat Night is marked around the world on the last weekend in August to draw attention to the importance of preserving that endangered animal species. In Croatia, it was marked on Saturday also by the Zagreb Zoo and over the weekend by the Medvednica Nature Park. Other nature and national parks across the country have already marked International Bat Night.

Croatia is a signatory to all relevant conventions and agreements aimed at ensuring the preservation of bats. All bat species in the EU are protected under the Habitats Directive and each member state is under the obligation to protect their populations and assess and report on their state of preservation, ministry officials told Hina.

The state of preservation of bats in Croatia was first assessed in 2019 and it indicated that most species, according to EU reporting guidelines for that period, were in an unfavourable-inappropriate or unfavourable-bad state of preservation, as was the case in all other EU countries.

Bats have an irreplaceable role in the protection of nature and humans and they are one of the most endangered groups of mammals in Europe, threatened by the loss of shelter and foraging habitats.

All the 34 bat species in Croatia are strictly protected and it is prohibited to hunt or kill them, deliberately disturb them – especially during the periods when they breed and raise their young or hibernate and migrate, and to damage or destroy their breeding and resting sites, ministry officials said.

In Croatia bats feed on mosquitoes, flies and moths. They are irreplaceable in controlling insect populations, of which many are pests in agriculture and forestry, so they are considered natural insecticides. On average, a bat eats around 1,000 insects a night.

They are indicators of healthy ecosystems and nature, because the large number of their species and populations means that the environment in which they live and survive is healthy, resilient and stable.

They live exceptionally long, give birth to only one pup a year, with the mortality rate among baby bats being above 50%, which is why it is very difficult for the populations of some of the species to recover.

“The importance of bats for the living world and the need for their preservation and protection have been recognised across Europe and the rest of the world,” the ministry said.