Calgary wildlife rehabilitation group running out of space to house injured bats found in city’s downtown

A Calgary wildlife rescue group is struggling to raise funds to keep up with the increase in the number of bats they are treating.

A silver-haired bat is one of the tiny patients recovering from an injured wing at the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society after being found in a downtown snowbank.

CWRS staff said in the last two months, they’ve seen many injured big brown bats turned in from the downtown core as well as silver-haired bats coming in during their migration.

“Little brown bats and long-eared bats are now listed as an endangered species. So they definitely need help,” Whalen said.

A combination of window strikes and white-nose syndrome — a disease of bats caused by a fungus — are believed to be some of the factors contributing to their population decline.

“We should be concerned because of where they fit in in their ecological niche. They are insectivores so they eat a lot of insects and we need them for pest control. Some of the species outside of Canada are pollinators,” Whalen said.

Now the CWRS is fundraising as staff try to nurse injured bats back to health at the facility.

“You saw in the room how crammed it was,” Whalen said, referring to the many specialized bat cages at the northwest Calgary facility.

“We are running out of reptariums, places to put them. We are using soft-sided carriers. It would be nice to have a separate building to isolate them and control the temperature better.”

The CWRS is hoping to start building the new bat enclosure this spring.

According to the Alberta Community Bat Program, it’s unknown exactly where the majority of bats hibernate in the province.