Bat rescued after getting stuck in flypaper

A bat had to be rescued after it was caught in fly paper and "would have been dead" without the intervention of a Nottinghamshire volunteer.

The bat, which has since been named Slick Rick, was found at a property in East Bridgford on 28 August and reported to the Nottinghamshire Bat Group.

A carer from the group promptly attended the property and used olive oil to release the bat, which is now recovering.

The group has since warned others not to use flypaper as "many bats die slowly in horrendous pain and from starvation in similar circumstances".

The carer who attended, named Alex, said she had "never seen anything like it before".

She explained the more the bat moved, the more it got stuck and was "stressed".

"By the time I got to it, the whole of its back and both of its wings were completely stuck," she said. "It literally couldn’t move and it had been like that for hours.

"If no one had intervened he would be dead now.

"We probably get three to six calls per season of that kind of thing. It’s not a daily occurrence but you can guarantee you’re going to get some every year."

The bat was given two baths and is now "pretty much back to normal".

A flight cage will be used to test if the bat can fly before he is released back into the wild.

The group is hoping to release 17 bats back into the wild in Radcliffe on Trent this week.

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