The first ever South West bat rehabilitation aviary has opened, just outside Dartington, south Devon.

Launched by Dr Fiona Mathews, of the University of Exeter, the new bat aviary will offer injured bats a place of healing and recovery before being released back into the wild.

The new aviary has been set-up by the Dartington Hall Trust in association with the Devon Bat Group and the University of Exeter - who are working together to address the very real need to protect bat species throughout the region.

The aviary is already home to a very rare bat, a Barbastelle, one of only 5,000 in the UK.

Dr Fiona Mathews, from the University of Exeter's School of Biosciences, said: "Bats have a remarkably long lifespan for a small creature - over 20 years.

Tom Stevens, Dartington Hall Trust: "The new bat aviary will offer a vital recovery space for the hundreds of bats found injured or in need of relocation every year."

"Successfully returning an individual to the wild can therefore have a real impact for conservation.

"As well as being used to help injured bats, the flight cage will be used to train abandoned baby bats how to fly and hunt.

"My research, in collaboration with the RSPCA, has shown that baby bats reared in this way have a better chance of survival than those kept indoors.

"This is likely to be because they exercise more and so have more stamina, and also because they develop the 'wild type' echolocation calls vital for catching insects."

Of the 17 species of bats in the UK, the aviary will house mainly soprano and common pipistrelles, Natterers, Noctules and Serotines.

The aviary, which has been nicknamed 'The Batty Ford Clinic', is only one of a small number of bat rehabilitation facilities in the UK. At any one time it will be able to accommodate 20 bats.

The aviary is a highly specialised construction, 30 x 15 foot in size and made from fine weave mesh.

Insects will be encouraged into the cage to give the bats practice in hunting during their convalescence.

Once the bats are within the aviary, highly trained volunteers will feed them and care for them - until it is determined that they are strong enough to be released into the wild.

Dartington conservation manager Tom Stevens said: "Dartington is always keen to work with innovative ideas to pressing conservation problems.

"All bat species are now protected in the UK but many are threatened because of changes in land use and building practices.

"The new bat aviary will offer a vital recovery space for the hundreds of bats found injured or in need of relocation every year."