Ukrainian wildlife charity forced to store hibernating bats in fridge before fleeing bombing

By Alex Morss and Fiona Jackson via SWNS

A Ukrainian wildlife charity has been forced to store their hibernating bats in the FRIDGE while they flee bombing.

The Bats Ukraine rescue team were looking after 93 bats that had been recovered from a building site in Dnipro when Russia invaded.

Shelling began near their site in Kharkiv two days ago and staff were forced to flee - but couldn't bear to leave the animals to almost certain death.

So they scooped up some of the bats and temporarily rehomed them in their private refrigerators to keep them safe and allow them to continue hibernating in peace.

A spokesperson for the rescue team said: "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

"We managed a raid to our office building to check the bats. Many bats needed to be taken to a safer new place.

“Immediately after we left the office our city was being heavily bombarded, but we are safe and alive, and took care of our bats on rehabilitation.

"We took them to our private refrigerator, now bats are sharing space with our grocery supply.

“Unfortunately our Kharkiv city is under the attack both by missile and ground forces.

“We are facing now the real threat, not only for our bats but the team members, currently all of us are safe, alive and not injured.”

Before leaving their rescue facility, staff also quickly fashioned some self-release cages for hibernating bats but would be well enough to fly free in the spring.

But many of their other more vulnerable patients required longer term care and could not be left, so were relocated to their fridge in protective cloth bat bags.

A bat's body temperature will drop during the chilly nights during hibernation and remain that way for several months

Rescuers transformed their fridge into a storage facility to keep the bats' temperature constant and ensure they don't wake up.

The group are still working to protect the creatures by candlelight, as using electricity may give away their new secret location and put them in danger.

Bats Ukraine are the only emergency bat rescuers in Ukraine, and are one of the biggest bat rehab centers in Europe.

The bats are threatened as they tend to build their habitats in roofs of buildings or the crevices of trees, making them vulnerable to disturbance.

The group formed of volunteers, vets and biologists, rescued over 3,000 bats this winter, and have helped over 16,5000 in total since it was formed in 2013.

You can support the charity by donating here or find out more information about them here.