Susie K.

When we moved to Northern California, I had volunteered at the LA Zoo for many years. However, there was no zoo close by I could volunteer at. I found a wildlife rehabilitator I could volunteer for so I did. I loved what I did but especially loved the bats. We got a bat in and I was able to take it home to care for it. Overtime, I have come to realize just how important bats are to our ecosystem. However, when I moved to Tennessee, we were not allowed to rehabilitate bats and I did everything I could to get the law changed. At the beginning of last summer, the law was changed and I worked with another bat rehabilitator for a short time. I applied for my own permit was got it. So besides rehabilitating bats in my area, I am also going into the community to give presentations about bats and their importance in our ecosystem. As I continue to learn more and more about them, I continue to pass that information on to whomever will listen.. I have recently attended two bat conferences to learn more and to find better ways of helping them. Bats are extremely beneficial to the farming community, saving the farmers billions of dollars every year. The time is now to save as many as we can, and through rehabilitation, I hope to. Last year I released 16 bats back into the wild!