The Isle of Wight's Bat Hospital

'Batmobile' rescues injured bats

By Roger Finn
BBC South Today

The Isle of Wight is a particularly rich habitat for bats. Fourteen of the 17 species native to England can be found on the island.

So it is the ideal location for Graham and Donna Street's 'Bat Hospital' - an ordinary semi-detached house on the outskirts of Sandown where the couple rescue and rehabilitate sick or injured bats.

One of the 24 bats rescued this year by the Streets' Bat Hospital

Bats are fully protected in law and the Streets have to have a licence to handle them and to keep them.

Most 'patients' are released back into the wild once they've recovered but those which have lost limbs are given a permanent home as they could never survive without the care the Streets give them.

It's a big commitment as bats can live for 20 years or more.

Each day Donna spends two or three hours looking after the 'patients'.

The cages and aviaries have to be cleaned, the tiny water bowls kept full and the food kept on tap - the mealworm bill alone is £2,000 a year.

The Batmobile

Each story begins with a tiny bundle of fur, fluttering helplessly on the ground. That's how it was with the rescue that interrupted our filming of the bat hospital.

Advice for rescuing injured bats

The phone rang with a call to the 'Bat Rescue' line. Two girls had found a pipistrelle bat which had been attacked by a cat.

We jumped into the bat rescue van with a box and within half an hour we were carrying Giles (named in honour of our producer) back to the hospital.

Giles was checked over, given water to drink and a meal worm to eat and then put into his own little cage to recover. He was the 24th rescue of 2009.

Bat lives

The Streets regularly exercise the bats by letting them fly around the living room. That requires a few precautions and a very watchful eye.

Bats love to hide behind and in things so the cracks between furniture and the wall are filled in with bits of foam and if a bat goes missing all the little pots have to be checked.

Donna spends several hours each day looking after the 'patients'

Early summer is a busy time of year as baby bats are being born in maternity roosts.

We went to visit one of the biggest roosts on the island - in the eaves of a house out in the countryside at Hamstead.

As the sun went down we counted 176 little creatures emerging from tiny cracks to head out into the night to feast on midges and mosquitoes. Now that's a diet that makes them lovable in anyone's book.