According to animal rights activists, an endangered bat species is spreading again in the Franconian Forest. The Lesser Horseshoe Bat is returning in increasing numbers from Thuringia to the neighboring Upper Franconian district of Kronach, reports Christina Höpflinger from the Upper Franconia Ecological Educational Center in Mitwitz. For a long time, the lesser horseshoe bat was considered lost in the region, until an animal was seen again near Ludwigsstadt in 2014. In the years that followed, more specimens of the rare bat species were sighted in the region. This is on the Red List of Endangered Species for Bavaria and Germany.
Caves in northern Bavaria are considered important winter quarters for bats. Species conservationists discovered specimens of the lesser horseshoe bat in a former mine tunnel in the Kronach district in mid-February. The employees are currently looking for the mammals’ nurseries – i.e. places where the pregnant females can give birth to their young.
“Interiors that are small and a little chaotic are particularly suitable for this,” says Christina Höpflinger. “So, for example, attics in private houses.” Heat accumulation, darkness and good approach opportunities are favorable conditions for females to settle. However, the landscape architect reports that it is not easy to find people who want to make their attic available for bat breeding. “Church attics have turned out to be great quarters.” There are certainly local councils that support the search for quarters for the animals.
According to the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU), the population of the lesser horseshoe bat in Germany plummeted from the middle of the 20th century. Since then it has been found in Bavaria, especially in the southern foothills of the Alps and the Upper Bavarian Alps. In northern Bavaria, almost 20 individuals are now found in the northern Franconian Jura every winter. In addition, researchers have registered some summer quarters with a total of 40 to 50 animals, mainly in the Bayreuth and Kronach districts, individual animals also near Kulmbach and Forchheim. The lesser horseshoe bat also has winter quarters in the Bavarian Forest. The animals probably came to Bavaria from the Czech Republic to spend the winter, reports the LfU.