The Seychelles is one of the world’s most beautiful and exclusive holiday destinations, but behind the scenes, sickening wildlife brutality is taking place. Flying foxes, a species of fruit bat, are hunted from the wild using crude and cruel nets and hooks – so they can be eaten by locals and tourists.

Once caught, flying foxes are beaten with sticks and stabbed if they are found alive, and then skinned and turned into curry.

Bat meat has been eaten by locals for decades, and now, profiteering restaurants are billing it as a dinner-plate delicacy to tourists – a ‘must-have’ cultural experience.

Flying foxes are granted no protection by the local government which means beating them with sticks, stabbing them and butchering them for their meat is legal.

The only people who can do anything to help these important mammals are concerned custodians of wildlife like you, and us. And we have a plan to help them.

Please, will you help?

Image credit: Protect Paradise

Tourists visiting the pristine Seychelles islands pay $35 to $40 (roughly £28 to £32) for a stomach-churning ‘traditional’ delicacy: fruit bat curry.

Flying foxes play a vital role in seed dispersal and the pollination of flowering plants, and they are critical to the health of forests.

But this fact is ignored by those Seychellois people who are only interested in profiting from their meat.

‘Kari sousouri’, or bat curry, is eaten on many islands in the Seychelles, but in particular on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, where flying foxes are being over-hunted and killed for the pot. Every month, hundreds of these important and harmless creatures are slaughtered.

It’s sickening!
Seychelles tourism websites actually promote fruit bat curry as one of the islands’ signature dishes, urging visitors to try it!

The animals are caught, sold by hunters for around $7.50 (roughly £6) each, then skinned and curried.

There are roughly 60 known species of flying foxes globally, and it is estimated that six species have already gone extinct.

We cannot let Seychelles’ flying foxes be next!

Flying foxes weigh between 400g and 800g (0.88 to 1.7 pounds), and subsist on fruit, seeds and nectar.

Tragically, this makes them easy prey for hunters: fishing lines and hooks are strung up in fruit trees or between bamboo poles so that the hungry bats get trapped while hunting for food.

These torture devices cause terrible injuries and suffering to the animals, and those who do not die right away often succumb to slow and painful deaths due to infection or the severity of their injuries.

Those trapped and still found to be alive are beaten with sticks or stabbed until they are dead – a brutal and excruciating way to die.

Most distressing of all, mothers are sometimes killed, and their pups – who weigh just 70 to 90g (2.4 to 3.1 ounces) – will be left to fend for themselves in the wild. Most will die because pups rely entirely on their mothers for the first year of their lives.

Image credit: Protect Paradise

Mother flying foxes carrying pups get caught in hunters’ nets and suffer slow, excruciating deaths.

Their pups are left lying helpless and defenseless on the ground, or still desperately clutching their mothers’ dead bodies.

Please, help us rescue and rehabilitate them now!

We are working with Protect Paradise (PP), the only licensed rescue and rehabilitation wildlife center on the island of Mahé, Seychelles.

Image credit: Protect Paradise

Protect Paradise rescues flying foxes caught in traps and rehabilitates those left sick, injured and orphaned. They treat around 10 flying foxes every month, caring for the pups sometimes for as long as eight months, after which they are released into areas where hunting is less likely to occur.

Rescued pups need dedicated 24-hour care and regular feeding every 2 to 3 hours. They also need help in maintaining their body temperature, for which heating pads are used, as well as special wraps that mimic their mothers’ wings. Without these, they would succumb to hypothermia and shock.

Without 24-hour care, hurt and traumatized flying foxes and their pups have no hope of survival, and would likely end up cooked into a curry!

You can help us keep flying foxes out of the pot by donating now. Please, will you help them?

Protect Paradise cares not only for flying foxes, but also vulnerable and critically endangered animals, including giant tortoises and yellow-bellied mud terrapins – endemic to the Seychelles – and critically endangered hawksbill turtles.

Caring for these delicate creatures is time-consuming and costly, but we – like you – believe that every life counts on a planet where almost every species is under pressure from human activity.

If we can raise $5,000 (roughly £4,014), we can help provide food, critical medicines and life-saving rehabilitation for the flying foxes, their orphaned pups, and other delicate wildlife in Protect Paradise’s care.

Image credit: Protect Paradise

Will you donate now to help us rehabilitate and preserve these important and defenseless creatures? Bats are vital to our ecosystems and do not deserve to die in cruel nets or on dinner plates.