Think Bat

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Happy Wildlife Mum's day to all the mums at organisations we connect with to rescue the babas... thank you for your help.
Bambelela Wildlife Care NPC & Vervet Monkey Rehab
South African Wildlife Rehabilitation Center
Friends of Free Wildlife
Think Bat
Owl Rescue centre
We Care Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre Rustenburg North West
Tweet Tweet Rescue and Rehab
The Owl Orphanage. Velddrif

The world needs bats!
Do your part to and combat misinformation about these crucial and misunderstood animals.
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🦇 Did you know that bats are critical pollinators for over 500 species of plants? Fruit bats also help regenerate forests by spreading seeds as they fly. They are also environmental superheroes, with brown bats being able to eat more than a thousand mosquito-sized insects in just one hour

The Easter Bunny came to see us. 💚🐰

This beautiful little indigenous scrub hare came into our care after his home became somewhat rearranged following an incident with a lawnmower.

For now, he is treated as an honorary bat while we give him all the TLC before he moves over to the hare experts after the long weekend.

Happy Easter to those celebrating.

Happy Monday!

Today we're sharing some 2025 highlights.
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It's not too late to wish everyone a Happy New Year, right? Right?! 🎊

Well friends, we made it through 2025 and, while we're not quite through "baby season", the majority of our tiny milk babies are big and we're finally getting a little bit more sleep than we were a few weeks ago (which was none. Zero sleep 😴).

You'll see we took in 227 cases for the year. 157 of those were in November and December alone. 😅
Because we are unpaid volunteers, the work we do with the bats is outside of our "real" full time jobs and so we use our vacation leave to manage all the cases over the busy season. This means that we have not had an actual vacation in 6 years.

Maybe 2026 is the year we can change that.😀

For now, we are concentrating on getting the bats adequately prepared and released back into the wild. This season, we have released about 170 bats so far (some were overwintered or have been with us longer for specialised extra care). Our cut off for releases is dependant on a few factors but we usually stop in March.

Let's do this! 💪😎

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Just in case you needed more reasons to admire bats...
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Someone ask for a snowball? ❄️🥶
These little floofs (𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴) hibernate in the snow!
Snow provides good insulation and protection from predators -- which is important when you weigh just 4-8 grams. 😮
While the bats often seem in rough shape when they’re found, 😵‍💫 they typically rouse themselves and fly away after dark.

🦇 Ussuri tube-nosed bat
📸 Yushi & Keiko Osawa

Send some love to South African Wildlife Rehabilitation Center!
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With breeding season and the severe weather, the clinic is full to the brim with babies of all descriptions. Between all the hard work, I've decided to do a little series on the real tiny cutie pies that we deal with every day. I call these interactions " munchkin moments.

This little one is a tiny little South African hedgehoglet, (Atelerix frontalis) aka Prickly Pear. Prickly was one of a few, rescued out of a puddle after a particularly bad storm,no sign of mom. And this is where foster mom, aka Me, stepped in.

Prickly is doing very well, luxuriating in a soft warm blanket, and generally enjoying life.

With Xmas on the way, we would love to have some assistance with special treats for our babies, and humbly ask for your assistance. Please use "Prickly" as your reference.

Thanking you in advance,
Judy Davidson
073 112 1131

Banking details
South African Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre
FNB #6275 926 5434
Branch code 250 655
Business account
SWIFT: FIRNZAJJ

PayPal: paypal.me/SAWildlife

When you know better...

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We need bats & bats need us 🖤🦇 🎞️ Horizonline Pictures

We get this question a lot too.
You'll find what you expect to find. 😁

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We get a lot of questions on how to tell a boy bat from a girl bat. Well… here is how. 🤣

It's funny to us that this old wives' tale persists - it seems so obviously silly!

If a bat lands on your head, maybe you should check yourself for bugs. 😉😂

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A lot of people think bats try to “get tangled in your hair.”
Nope. These animals fly with precision that would make any fighter pilot jealous. If a bat brushes past you, it chose that line on purpose - and it could’ve flown through a smaller gap if it wanted to.