Sarah Curran Rescues Bats Because They Saved Her Life

By
Miranda B
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Sarah Curran, a volunteer at Sydney Wildlife suffered pretty severely from anxiety and panic attacks. It was so bad that she wasn’t able to function and she needed to be hospitalized twice. Fortunately, she found a way to make her feel better; she joined a volunteer rescue organization and fell in love with bats.

“The bats gave me something to focus on that wasn’t myself and it gave me a reason to want to get better,” she told The Dodo and added that her house is now full of rescued bats. “I rescue out of my parent’s home. The maximum number of animals that I’ve had in my house was…90.”

She is thankful for everything bats have done for her that she just can’t stop helping them.

“That’s what – what did it for me and it’s just been one long road. I was in a pretty low place, and I just am grateful because I don’t think I would’ve gotten out of that. I haven’t really said that before, but they’ve done so much for me and I wanna do the best for them that I can possibly do,” Curran finished.

Curran shares images of her bats on social media accounts, Facebook where she has attracted more than 25,000 followers and an Instagram page with over 7,000 fans. Scroll down and check out her adorable bats.

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Had my first case of tick paralysis, in ten years of rescuing and rehabbing bats. This is perhaps a very unlucky indication of how poorly the grey-headed flying-foxes are doing because they should generally forage higher than where paralysis ticks naturally occur. The recent bushfires have decimated critical food sources for these large bats, which means they are more likely to be found in less suitable habitat like low street shrubs and backyard fruit trees where they are more likely to come in to trouble with injury. Thanks to the generosity of the wonderful vets at @gordonvet hospital, who donated tick serum and pain relief, to give her a chance of survival. Without treatment, the tick toxin, which was already starting to show some signs, would have killed her! If you come across any bat by itself during the day or hanging low unable to fly away at any time, it is in serious trouble. Never handle a live bat. Urgently contact a vaccinated and trained local wildlife rescue group for specialist assessment. Grey-headed flying-foxes are endemic to the east coast of Australia and responsible for long distance seed dispersal and pollination of our gum trees. We have lost thousands and thousands of this threatened species in the last month. Every one is precious. Also massive thank you to the amazing Jenny from @tolgabathospital for being available to provide advice, as they deal with hundreds of tick paralysis cases in the spectacled flying-foxes in far north QLD each year #threatenedspecies #pollinators #batsofinstagram #nswbushfires #criticalcare #tickparalysis #paralysis #emergency #rescue #wildliferescue #batsarenotpets #veterinarian #veterinarymedicine @wvscharity

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