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An Irish charity is rehabilitating injured and orphaned bats while working to change public perceptions of the creatures. At its center in County Limerick, volunteers nurse the bats back to health before returning them to the wild.
Looking out for them is Susan Kerwin from Bat Rehabilitation Ireland. She says they’re one of the world’s most misunderstood and maligned animals. Kerwin founded the charity during the COVID pandemic.
“Bats were being villainized, and they were made out to be the cause of this pandemic. I was getting calls every day from members of the public that were absolutely terrified,” she says. “They didn’t want bats roosting close to their house. There was people that were threatening to use expanding foam and block them in there, threatening to kill the bats, burn them.”
The charity cares for bats from across the Irish Republic’s twenty-six counties. They arrive either injured, underweight, or separated from their mothers.
“This little soprano pipistrelle was found almost completely bald,” says Kerwin. “We don’t know was it because it was a particularly hot summer and the roost was under a galvanized steel roof. Or was it something that was genetically or nutritionally happening there,” says Kerwin.
Bat Rehabilitation Ireland has a team of around fifty volunteers around the country to help collect injured or orphaned bats.
In 2023, they crowdfunded a specially equipped bat ambulance to help them reach remote areas not covered by volunteers.
“It’s been a real game changer for us,” Kerwin says. “Some weeks I could spend five and six hundred kilometers on the road and this allows us to kind of get to cases that normally we would have to wait until the evening or maybe the following day.”
When bats first arrive at the rehabilitation center, they are examined for parasites which are removed and placed in test tubes. Kerwin and her colleagues then send these off to Galway University for testing.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.