Close your eyes and think about bats? The first things that spring into your mind are probably not very good, but that is so unfair to these amazing little creatures.
Have a look at how cute they are in the RTÉ News report featuring a Bat Hospital in Limerick.
Here our friends at Bat Conservation Ireland are going to tell us a lot these misunderstood animals.
Bats make up one quarter of the world's mammals. Being mammals, they feed their young on milk, they have hair and they give birth to small copies of themselves, not eggs.
All Irish bats eat insects. In a single night, a pipistrelle bat can eat as many as three thousand small insects including midges, mosquitoes, tiny moths and tiny beetles. Bats have an extraordinary lifestyle that includes hanging upside down, sleeping in the daytime and sleeping for much of the winter (hibernating).
If a bat enters your house, don't panic! Open the window as wide as it will go, pull the curtains back, switch off the light and leave the room, closing the door behind you. In most cases, the bat will make its own way out.
In Ireland we have nine species and perhaps we have one or two more that are yet to be discovered. The bats that you will most likely see are pipistrelles.
There are three species of pipistrelle of which the common pipistrelle is the most widespread. Soprano pipistrelles form the largest roosts of bats in Ireland and often live near to water (such as lakes, rivers, ponds and marshy area).
Our largest bat, Leisler's bat, is often out before sunset and may be seen flying high in the open. This species is one of our most important as it forms larger roosts here than in the rest of Europe.
Nathusius' pipistrelle forms large colonies in County Antrim but has only been found in small numbers south of the border.
One very famous bat does not live in Ireland - the Vampire Bat. Even though they do need blood to survive, everyone is very harsh on them.
We will let them introduce themselves to you in this great animation from Brown Bag Films.
Bats need your help to guarantee that they can continue to flutter around in the night sky.
For kids go to www.learnaboutbats.com.
And grown-ups can visit www.batconservationireland.org.
