Luckily, with a little ‘tlc’ the
teeniest scraps of skin,
bone and fur can be saved
Adult males – “hormonal dads” Sam calls them – are also
often injured during the autumn breeding season (females
give birth the following summer). “With their minds on one
thing, amorous males make so much noise they attract
predators,” she says. “Domestic cats are a real menace and
account for 70 per cent of the casualties I see.”
Other dangers include uncovered water tanks in lofts
and collisions with sticky flypaper. And bats suffer from
unscrupulous or careless building work, despite the fact that
all bat roosts in Britain are strictly protected – it’s a criminal
offence to disturb roosts, even if the bats are away.TENDER LOVING CARE
In summer, meanwhile, nursing babies may become
separated from their mothers and risk being grounded.
“In the first week of its life, a baby bat will usually survive
a fall, because its mum can still pick it up off the floor and
fly away with it,” explains Sam. “But if you ever see a pink
bat without its mum, something’s seriously wrong.”
Luckily, with a little ‘TLC’ the teeniest scraps of skin, bone
and fur can be saved. If a bat survives its critical first two
days in Sam’s sanctuary, it has over an 80 per cent chance
of recovering to be released back into the wild.
The Brinsea incubator, designed for rearing poultry,
is new. It was paid for by the picture agency representing
Nick Upton, whose photographs illustrate this article.Above: Pipistrelle
bats are frequent
guests. The pup on
the left is a common
pipistrelle, and the
other a soprano
pipistrelle. Note
the wing claws on
modified ‘thumbs’How a rescued bat is
restored to full health
Rehabilitating bats is intensive work. “As a bat carer you are living,
breathing bats 24/7,” Samantha Pickering says. First, each new
patient is assessed carefully. Bats with horrific injuries may have
to be put to sleep, but torn ears and even large holes in wing
membranes will heal in a month or two. Next the bat carer cleans any
wounds, for example with olive oil and gentle detergent. The patient
is dried off, often over a heat mat, and any mite infestations are
treated. Then begins the process of teaching it to take mealworms
from the hand. The bat is introduced to a flight
cage to learn (or relearn) how to fly, and then
finally set free.