Wiltshire Wildlife Trust fundraiser will help create new habitats for Bechstein bats

A fundraiser to support critically endangered bats at a nature reserve in Wiltshire has reached its target.

In recent years, the population of Bechstein bats at Green Lane Wood Nature Reserve near Trowbridge has continued to decline.

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust said it needed to act urgently, launching a fundraiser to create additional habitats for the species.

That fundraiser has now reached its £2,100 target, giving the trust the opportunity to build a safer space for the bats to breed.

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust said: "New and enhanced ponds at Green Lane will help provide food sources attracting flying insects for the bats to eat.

"Alongside this we will also be creating new roosting features within the woodland to provide more safe space for the bats to breed.

"More monitoring and data collection, including on local weather, will inform more work to help the Bechsteins.

"We have already been successful in provisionally securing a grant of nearly £20,000 from the Suez Landfill Fund to undertake this vital work, which must be completed within the next 12 months.

"Under the terms of the Landfill Grant, we must provide 10 per cent of the project costs as a contributing third-party payment– so any donation you give will release up to ten times the amount given to this appeal."

More than two and a half thousand pounds has now been donated to the cause.