A sigh of relief that once again the shooting season is over.

Birds and hares (presuming there are some left) can be free to breed and raise their young.

Being the size of pigeons and slow gliders, the beautiful and harmless fruit bats are also shot, just for fun. However the little, whizzing, insect-eating bats are impossible to shoot, and they will soon be back flying around our gardens. One of these tiny creatures can eat between 500 and 1000 mosquitos in just an hour, so they are welcome guests.

They too, will give birth. Like us, a bat is a mammal and, like humans, a bat can only bear one baby in a year, which it feeds on milk. Mother bats will fly out with the baby clinging to her abdomen while it is too young to fly on its own. Sometimes the juvenile will fall off; at other times a juvenile may be confused and may end up in your house. If the bat has accidentally flown into your home, don’t panic. For sure the animal does not want to be there. Summertime is baby bat time; it’s probably an inexperienced juvenile.

Please don’t chase it around and frighten it in an attempt to get it to fly out of the window. The little animal will be terrified and most probably will get injured. The thing to do is to put on gloves (if the little creature is terrified, there’s a small chance it could bite in fear), then place a shoebox or similar-sized container over the bat. Slide a piece of cardboard underneath to trap it.

Or you could gently roll the bat up in a towel. Once the bat is in a box, you should hang a piece of loosely folded soft material (such as a face-cloth or duster) from the top of the box.

The animal will crawl in to the safety and dark of the folds. If the bat is not injured, release it in the evening, about an hour after sunset. Give the animal a chance of survival by placing it on something high up (a tree or wall) as many bats can’t take off from the ground, and there are cats around. If the bat is injured, or isn’t moving phone us and we will try to advise. Please note, we are located in the Limassol area.