Green Limerick: Ireland’s very first bat clinic flying it in Limerick

A LIMERICK woman who opened Ireland’s very first bat hospital after her own brush with mortality is hoping to save more lives, as her back garden bat rehabilitation centre receives charity status.

Susan Kerwin, from Bruree, first began working with wildlife over 20 years ago.

At the time, she was working with different organisations, and began taking in small animals at home to rehabilitate, while plying her trade as a falconer, training birds of prey.

“Bats were always something that I was really fascinated with. It wasn’t until my late twenties that my real love came about, when I was diagnosed with cervical cancer, with young children,” she said.

Each night, Susan would find some quiet time alone, sitting out in her back garden, observing bats.

Curiosity quickly grew into commitment and Limerick’s future bat woman soon found herself running around with a bat detector, investigating each of the nine Irish bat species as they flew by.

After diving deeper into bat conservation and rehabilitation, the mother-of-two decided to open her very own bat hospital from her back garden during Covid, in an effort to rescue those arriving, with the goal of releasing them in full health back into the wild.

Expelling many of the preconceptions about bats held by the wider public is part and parcel of the job: “Bats are much closer to humans genetically, than they are to rats.”

The mammals, who are nocturnal, are covered in fur, have warm blood and give birth and suckle their babies with milk, rather than laying eggs, like most other winged creatures.

Bats give birth to one pup each year and stay with their offspring for several years.

“They are also social animals, and they pass on information on foraging and roof sites,” she said.

This nugget of information forms the basis of the majority of her rehabilitation work, where the end goal is always to have the bats that come into her care returned to their respective social circle.

They arrive in Bruree from all over the country, transported by a large network of volunteers.

The majority of those that check in are orphaned bat pups, who are commonly found stuck to fly traps, hit by cars or were victims of cat predation lucky enough to tell the tale.

The most common injury is a wing tear, which lands them with a six to eight week stay in County Limerick. Cats also possess a bacteria in their saliva that give bats sepsis, Susan informed.

On the day Susan was speaking with Limerick Live, she had a total of 34 bats under her wing. The highest number held on site at the one time since the clinic opened in 2020, was 150 bats.

Limerick's very own 'Batwoman' has plans to open new clinics

With 1,000 species all over the world, Ireland only plays host to nine, which all fall under the micro-bat category rather than the mega (thankfully). The largest of these weighs up to 15g and the smallest comes in at 5g.

“Despite this, bats are essential for the environment and ecosystem, as they eat their entire body weight in insects every single night,” she said.

The two most common, the soprano and common bat, have a population of one million each in Ireland and eat up to 10 tonnes of insects per night, between them.

“They reduce the amount of pesticides on our food through this predation, which, in turn, reduces the amount coming into our bodies,” she said, on the importance of keeping bats alive.

Since opening, all of the work Susan has done for the vital bat species that arrive at her door has been done through her own funding, reliant on the commitment and dedication of volunteers.

Now, after two years, the Bruree Bat Rehabilitation Centre has achieved charity status, meaning that it can officially run fundraisers as opposed to relying on donations and self-funding for vet and food fees.

County Limerick’s very own Bat Woman is now hoping to extend her superpowers and open a series of bat hospitals across the country.

While the future seems incredibly bright, she has one final word of warning: “The only thing people should be scared of is what would happen to us and our environment if we let bats disappear.”

For more green news, see the EcoLive section of our website.