{"id":21005,"date":"2025-08-24T22:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T22:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/21005\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T22:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T22:24:09","slug":"limerick-bat-walk-shines-light-on-lesser-horseshoe-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/21005\/","title":{"rendered":"Limerick bat walk shines light on Lesser Horseshoe conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fitzgeraldskiphire.ie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot_2025-07-09_124852-1755784089651.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>LIMERICK is a key area for the Lesser Horseshoe bat, a small and special bat species found in parts of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.limerickleader.ie\/section\/308\/national\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Ireland<\/a> including West Cork, Kerry, Clare, Galway, and Mayo.<\/p>\n<p>Although there are only around 14,000 Lesser Horseshoe bats left in these six counties, their homes have become more and more separated because of changes in the landscape over time.<\/p>\n<p>This separation makes it harder for the bats to find mates from other groups, which can lead to inbreeding and put the overall population at risk.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.limerickleader.ie\/news\/ecolive\/1869877\/limerick-sows-seeds-of-change-with-biodiversity-workshop.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Limerick sows seeds of change with biodiversity workshop<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT), which works to protect wildlife in Ireland, has partnered with the Mulkear River Catchment Project to create a new conservation initiative focused on the Lesser Horseshoe bat.<\/p>\n<p>This project aims to protect and connect the habitats that these bats depend on, especially around river systems.<\/p>\n<p>To help raise awareness and connect people with nature, an evening walk will take place at Curraghchase Forest Park on Thursday, August 21 at 8pm.<\/p>\n<p>This park is home to Lesser Horseshoe bats, making it a perfect place to learn about them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During the walk, Dr. Kate McAney, Ireland Mammal Programme Manager for VWT will share interesting facts about the bats and explain why they are important to the local ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>This event offers a great chance for community members to enjoy a peaceful walk in nature, learn more about biodiversity in the local area, and find out how they can help protect these animals.<\/p>\n<p>It is also a wonderful opportunity to understand how local conservation efforts make a difference in preserving Ireland\u2019s unique wildlife.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone is welcome to join this free, family-friendly event to support the conservation of the Lesser Horseshoe bat and celebrate Limerick\u2019s rich natural heritage.<\/p>\n<p>The conservation status of the Lesser Horseshoe bat was recently downgraded from \u2018Favourable\u2019 to \u2018Inadequate,\u2019 meaning that without action, their numbers and range will continue to decline.<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIMERICK is a key area for the Lesser Horseshoe bat, a small and special bat species found in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[18,440,19,17,1844,9213,133,461],"class_list":{"0":"post-21005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-limerick","13":"tag-limerick-city-and-county-council","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}