Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation has its hands full with around 380 bats found hibernating in a Saskatchewan curling rink.

The initiative will see Western researchers utilize thousands of frozen bat tissue samples to develop a bank of ready-made vaccines in the event of another coronavirus pandemic.

"They are I think so valuable to the ecosystem and I think that's something we have to get more information out there."

Bats have been shown to be the natural reservoir of numerous deadly human viruses, explains Narveen Jandu of the University of Waterloo.

The Canadian singer was accused of targeting Chinese people in an Instagram rant about the coronavirus, which forced him to cancel performances.

Craig Willis, the U of W's "bat prof," says COVID-19 fears have caused people to worry unnecessarily about bats due to reports that they might be the source of the illness.

The World Health Organization thinks the novel coronavirus may have originated in bats.

The Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Saskatchewan said there has been a recent surge in calls involving brown bats.

A Calgary wildlife rehabilitation group is running out of space to house its injured bats.

Got Bats? program says funding will help research a fatal bat disease known as white-nose syndrome.