National Bat Helpline – a call for help

The National Bat Helpline provides a vital service that helps people and saves bats. Find out more about the amazing work the helpline does by reading the 2019 report which we are publishing today, it can be downloaded by CLICKING HERE. We are also urgently calling for your help to secure the funding needed to run one vital part of the helpline, namely the Out Of Hours (OOH) service which helps to save thousands of bats every summer. To find out more VISIT THIS PAGE

National Bat Helpline Report 2019

Every year the helpline team provides timely advice and information to thousands of people who get in touch. In 2019, we received 13,479 enquiries from a diversity of people from urban and rural areas right across the UK. The Helpline helps to save thousands of bats every year while also winning hearts and minds by raising awareness and appreciation of bats, often with callers who are fearful while still wanting to do the right thing.

We have just published the latest National Bat Helpline report that summarises the work the Helpline did in 2019. The report has been slightly delayed due to the challenging circumstances that we have all faced since the start of 2020. To download the report, CLICK HERE

The Helpline’s work would simply not be possible without the thousands of volunteers involved including the Natural England Volunteer Bat Roost Visitors, bat carers, ambulance drivers. regional helplines, wildlife hospitals and the OOH volunteers who provide emergency advice in the evenings and weekends during the summer months. We cannot thank you all enough for everything you do – you are all bat heroes along with everyone who finds a bat in trouble and gets in touch to help.

Crowdfunding Appeal for Help

We rely on donations to help run the National Bat Helpline and today we are launching a Crowdfunding appeal to secure the funds needed to run the vital Out Of Hours service in 2021. This OOH service operates in the summer months, from May until the end of September, when bats are at their most active. During the first month of the Summer, bats are having their babies which means calls for help often involve pregnant bats that have been caught by cats, baby bats (pups) that have got lost as they wander out of their roosts and youngsters who haven’t quite mastered their flying skills. Many of the calls handled by OOH volunteers are also from people who have found bats stuck to fly paper, caught by fishhooks or grounded for any number of reasons. Some calls are also about bat crimes such as illegal destruction of roosts. We urgently need your help; your donations will enable us to help people and save bats. There are also some great perks available for different levels of donations. Every donation makes a difference - will you save a bat by donating today? https://chuffed.org/project/out-of-hours-emergency-service-for-bats