AN animal rescue service is appealing for pet owners to keep their cats in after sunset to protect endangered bats from being attacked.

On Monday, July 21, East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service (WRAS) was called to help a brown long-eared bat found near Uckfield and a Natterer's bat found at Westmeston.

The first bat was bruised with cuts and rips to its wing membranes. The second bat at Westmeston had a badly injured leg.
WRAS rescuers Trevor Weeks and Kathy Martyn took the bats to the Sussex Bat Hospital at Forest Row but the Natterer's bat had a badly injured leg and foot and had to be put down.

Mature trees, timbered barns, church steeples and old farmhouses provide important roost sites for Natterer's bats who are thought to number about 70,000 in Britain.

Trevor is urging cat owners in rural areas of Mid Sussex to try to bring their cats inside an hour before sunset until the end of August - the period when bats are being reared. If a cat has already caught a bat it may have found a roost and may return to it night after night.

More information and advice is available via WRAS's website at www.wildlifeambulance.org. Also at www.bats.org.uk.