Our work

With heavy, severely inflamed abrasions on the shoulder and face that contained grains of sand and wood chips, this bat came to our ward one week ago in mid-March 2018. In the wound cleaning and removal of the foreign body was also found out that under the neck and scalp an air emphysema was. Presumably, she is the victim of a roof renovation, where she sat between stones and was squeezed. Fortunately, the lung injury is probably already stuck, the emphysema is now no bigger and the breath sounds have disappeared after the antibiotic treatment also. The one photo was taken after the initial treatment, now the healing is even more advanced and she eats without end! In the first flight exercises in about 2 weeks will show whether the lung function is sufficient for longer flights.

We hope the best, so that she can go back to freedom in the summer - but she will have to look for a new winter home next winter ... 

New bat boxes were installed in cooperation with the School Biology Center Hannover. These serve as a supplement to the old trees existing there. 

For 5 days and nights, a male of the rare, strictly protected two-color bat had to hold out with wings impaled in a pigeon defense grid, before house-dwellers observed movements in the animal, which was believed to be dead, and notified the fire department. In a desperate attempt to free themselves, the bat had begun to escape the slow thirst by partial amputation of the wing. Because the animal hung inaccessible at high altitude, it could only be recovered with the help of the long fire ladder.

Heavily weakened, half-starved and thirsty, the bat was taken to the bat center of the BUND region of Hannover, where it was immediately supplied with fluids, pain medication, food and antibiotic wound care.

It seems like a miracle that the nocturnal animal has survived so long and was not killed in its exposed situation by crows, magpies or birds of prey. Maybe they were afraid to end up similar ...

Now, a few days later, the little patient is recovering well. Without hesitation, he has adopted the unfamiliar mealworm diet and is already the keeper's favorite.

Although part of the wing - the exposed, self-gnawed metacarpal and finger bone can not be rescued, there is still the possibility that the wing heals so that it can later fly again.

Since bats can become very old (over 30 years is occupied), a longer convalescent period is not only worthwhile for the individual, but also for the preservation of the increasingly rare flying artists, each of whom catches and absorbs thousands of insects per night also very useful! 

The bats fly into the classroom - through lectures, actions and excursions we offer schools the opportunity to introduce children of all grades to species conservation. In addition, we also lend school cases on bats about the School Biology Center Hannover. 

Our task forces as well as the release teams are on their way to recover or release bats. 

A bat from Resse in the Wedemark had been discovered last Wednesday in a basement room, where she sat in a large saucepan and did not come out. The friendly finders had then put them in a box, but when our rescue driver came to pick them up, the box was empty. The finders had missed an approx. 3 cm hole on the side and it had escaped. So unfortunately our driver had to pull off again.

On Easter Sunday, the finders have found the bat again - sitting on a sack of carrots. Quickly our mission driver rushed off again and the girl was recovered and brought to our vet.

The bat weighed only 3.2 g, was very weak, a bit dirty, but unhurt. Both wings were fortunately okay. First, the bat has drunk a few drops of water. Then she got a little bit overwhelmed and after half an hour she got straight and eaten a few mealworms. She is fine, and very soon - when it gets warmer - she can be re-released. 

Together, the forestry administration of the state capital Hannover and the bats group of the BUND Hannover region create new housing for bats in the city forest Eilenriede in March 2018. The weather was icy, but the wind and snow could not stop the Department of Environment and Urban Green from getting on with a lift and hanging up the new batboxes. We would not have been able to install these very heavy Schwegler wooden concrete boxes without this energetic support at lofty heights. We thank Mr. Bettin and his great forest management team for this great commitment and look forward to further cooperation.

Addition due to the many demands: The boxes are regularly checked in cooperation with the forestry administration and possibly cleaned. We chose this altitude to hopefully make the evening sailors good. If you do not have the opportunity to regularly inspect and clean boxes at such heights, you should never hang them up so high! 

Until late into the night, our teams searched with flashlight, endoscope and detector for possibly destroyed bat quarters and injured animals. Fortunately, no traces of injured bats have been found so far. The search continues.

Ask your local council / city administration and well-known tree care companies to look for broken bat quarters or injured animals. (The City of Hannover already has the information from us). 

... I am a Bechstein bat - and now I am part of the BDS Bundeswehr's bat conservation campaign, as well as numerous reports on the Hambacher Wald - I also demand: Hambi stays! Will you help to protect me?

In lectures, we inform people about bats, their way of life, their importance in the ecosystem, reduce prejudice and suggest to people protective measures for bats.

In our own courses, we train interested parties for the bat care and at specialist conferences, we dedicate ourselves in presentations to the professional audience on specific topics. 

Our bat emergency call can be reached within 24 hours. If you find a bat, you can always get expert help from us. We also provide telephone advice on bat protection and treatment of injured bats for veterinarians and bat specialists. 

This bat barely escaped death after falling into a chimney. She is already on the way to recovery. Your chances of a speedy life back in freedom are very good.

Learn how to protect bats from such accidents here. 

Every day, our teams provide the bat patients at the Bat Center. Every day there is the control of the animals. The flight training teams perform rehab and flight training. An index card is kept for each individual animal in order to tailor the training individually to the individual patient. If the training results are good, then the release takes place. Then the animals are free again - that is the aim of our work. 

Today we were back with our information stand at the main train station at Urban Gardening. Unfortunately, hardly any visitors came to us due to the weather. 

Three Bechstein-bats, who were in treatment for a long time due to various injuries, were released together in the Eilenriede one week ago in the box they had chosen in the ward themselves. Kindly, the foresters of the City of Hannover Department of Environment and Urban Green had agreed to mount the box in about 8 m height with the hoist and even drive up to the box control again a week later. The bats had meanwhile apparently found a better dwelling, so that the box was removed again, because he can not be controlled in height without lift and cleaned.

We would like to thank you very much for the spontaneous help with the foresters!

After years no Bechstein bats were found in the Eilenriede, these beautiful animals are apparently back home in small numbers with us, at least we had in the last two years, several finds wounded or weakened animals in Hanover, even a small cub was there, however unfortunately came too late and could not be saved. Now we hope that the 2 females and 1 male stay together and care for more offspring! (Dr. Renate Keil) 

We have completed 2 new showcases for the 2016 season. One will be created shortly. The showcases show a miniature bat group with baby and a brown long ear and a small horseshoe nose and a pug bat. (These are all models and not prepared animals!). 

At events, we inform the visitors about the bat protection and offer children's actions. 

Our teams look at the trees that are due to precipitate for disease, whether they contain bats that need to be secured! At the same time, they look to see if the precipitation is really necessary. We do not know how many kilometers we have traveled by car / bike or on foot and how many are still ahead ... 

Now the two bat babies are already so big. The mother looks after the two little ones caring 

A bat with cystitis is currently undergoing intensive medical treatment. The situation is critical. Bladder inflammation can be fatal in many cases in bats. One of our bat carers is always at the bat's side. Meanwhile the bat is well again and in freedom :-) 

Hanover at the former Oststadt Hospital:

The BUND Kreisgruppe Hannover has drawn attention to the fact that the B-planning of the former Oststadtkrankenhaus has not taken into account.

"Too many trees are supposed to die for ruthless planning!"

The BUND criticized with an action the procedure for the development of the area of the former Oststadt Hospitals and appeals to the advice of the city of Hanover to reject the development plan. 

(Text and photos: Carina Bach BUND Region Hannover - July 2015) 

Our Team supports the animal rescuers of the professional fire brigade Hanover with expertise in helping and handling bats. For many years, the professional fire brigade Hannover is in use when it says "bat in need" - With a special animal rescue vehicle they rush to help the animals. Bats are brought by the professional fire brigade directly to our station, so that an immediate medical care of the animals is ensured. 

Last night, our team fought for the lives of 42 dwarf and mosquito bats that had flown into a building. After capturing all the animals one after the other, the building was scanned to keep no animal behind. In the middle of the night, the animals were taken to our vet for a medical checkup. Fortunately, all the animals were well and could be re-released the same night. This is just one of many emergencies. Every day new patients reach us, at the same time others are healthy and are re-released. Our orphan bat babies learn to fly and hunt and are in the sheltered release cared for by our team. Our teams train and care for inpatient patients every day so that they can recover and recover as quickly as possible. In addition, we answer all incoming requests for finding bats, bat quarters and more. Not to forget our events, in which we participate in order to inform as many people as possible about bats and their protection. These are just a few things we do - there is a lot more to do in the background, e.g. Campaigns, craftsmanship, logistics, occupational safety and more. (Photo is from our archive, because we do not even come to take pictures). We are on site with the animals - every day - on a volunteer basis (September 2015) 

BUNDchen diligently keeps the patient's book - in the last few days some of our patients have left our ward healthy and are living in freedom again. Up to 8 teams were at the same time in operation to out-feed and provide more animals and train. New patients have arrived again. BUNDchen notes each animal with species, sex, status (juvenile / subadult / adult), location, etc. These data are reported to the Nature Conservation Agency. In addition, we provide a registration form for each animal to the NLWKN to provide data for habitat and neighborhood protection measures. We also enter the data in the NABU batmap to supplement the data collection of the bat stocks in Lower Saxony, as this may lead to further protective measures. 

In 2015, two pug bats came to our station for the first time.  

On the Internet we reach thousands of people with our contributions, especially the sharing via social medias brings a lot of resonance and thus contributes to the national and international bat protection. Again, we receive many technical inquiries, which we are happy to answer. 

In various demos, we stand up for bat protection, reject pesticides and fight for the preservation of forests. (Photo: End Coal Demo - Photographer Georg Wendt BUND)