Watan-For people, there are various tastes, but the hobby of the Polish sixty-year-old Barbara Górska, who lives in northwest Poland, represents a unique kind of hobby, as she has accustomed herself to sheltering hundreds of sick or injured bats in her apartment, disregarding the risks.

According to Polish media, the Polish retiree (69 years old) has been dubbed “Bat-Mum… the Bat Mother” because of her care for sick bats in her ninth-floor apartment, where she struggles to preserve the lives of these nocturnal mammals increasingly affected by climate change.

Barbara Górska, 69, runs a sanctuary for bats in the residential building where she lives, claiming to have cared for about 1600 of them so far.

Unexpected visitors

According to “saipantribune,” Górska said in her apartment while bats fluttered around her: “It all started exactly 16 years ago, in the bitterly cold month of January… when bats began to emerge from the ventilation shafts into my apartment suddenly.”

The owner of the sixty-square-meter apartment, located in Sztuczki in northwest Poland, added: “I saved about 1600 bats.”

She continued: “I mainly take care of exhausted bats, those that wake up from hibernation due to fireworks, for example, or because they’ve been hit by the sun, thinking that spring has arrived.”

She currently cares for about thirty sick or injured bats, and for Górska, there’s a clear connection between climate change and the increasing number of bats needing assistance in her sanctuary.

Górska said: “With warmer weather and unusually high temperatures, these nocturnal creatures think that spring has already arrived and that there will be food. Unfortunately, they lose so much energy that they can’t even fly anymore.”

Rabies

The retired woman initially harbored bias and common misconceptions about bats, including their alleged role in spreading rabies, before consulting with a friend specialized in microbiology who clarified the matter.

Initially, she said she “panicked” when she saw the first bat fall onto her daughter’s bedspread. She added, “I thought the rabies virus had spread throughout the entire apartment.”

Now, the sixty-year-old Polish woman surrounds herself with experts and has built a network of volunteers who assist in her bat sanctuary, each bat having its own name, feeding routine, and medication plan.

Górska said as a bat darted up and down in the jacket she was wearing, “Some bats stay here for a very short time, like two weeks… but some, like those with fractures, need long-term rehabilitation.”

According to scientific encyclopedias, there are over 1200 species of bats, many of which are abundant in specific regions of the world.

Bat species vary based on their dietary habits, ranging from fruit consumption, insect hunting, nectar feeding, to feeding on the blood of other animals.