Our old office in Frederick, MD, occasionally has bats down in the office area (they live in the attic, it seems). I have one even as I type (4:12 p.m., EST) in a cardboard box behind me, scritching away, trying to get out.
I’m very fond of bats and I want to take it home and release it there (out in the country near water) but wonder if it will be able to find shelter.
Are there any naturalists out there who can offer some advice and reassurance?
M
Don’t touch the bat with your bare hands. I doubt that this is a good time to try to relocate a bat, it’s so cold and no food around. I would wait till dusk and release the bat where you found it (outside, of course). To attract bats to your house/barn/trees, get some bat droppings (available in country hardware stores, along with bat houses, and in gift shops, if you’ll believe it).
Good luck.
That sounds like a plan, since it presumably is familiar with this area. And dusk is about the time I leave here.
And no, no one here touches bats with their bare hands. We employed a plastic bag, thinking at first that it was dead, since it was on the floor. We think now that it was trying to squeeze under the door to the outside.
Thanks!
I would suggest you contact your local wildlife rescue organization. There will be someone there who has a license for wildlife rehab, who has a further license for rabies vector species, and the knowledge of how to assess the animal’s health and ability to survive.
Thanks for not bat-bashing! They’re wonderful, helpful, fascinating animals.
On 2003-01-27 16:34, Kendahl wrote:
I would suggest you contact your local wildlife rescue organization. There will be someone there who has a license for wildlife rehab, who has a further license for rabies vector species, and the knowledge of how to assess the animal’s health and ability to survive.Thanks for not bat-bashing! They’re wonderful, helpful, fascinating animals.
The little guy doesn’t seem to need rehabiliting, just the chance to hang out in a more appropriate environment than this office. (He/she is still skritching away in the box.)
You’re right, bats are fascinating! I get lots of odd little critters around home, including bats from time to time.
M
PS–a friend gave me a sheet of commemorative bat postage stamps for Christmas and I can’t bear to use them.
I think it’s odd that it is out and about now–they should be hibernating at this time of year, unless it’s a lot warmer down there than it is here. There aren’t any insects for them to eat, so I would expect that they would hibernate in your area, too. This makes me think “sick bat”; I agree, call a wildlife specialist and get it assessed. Even if nobody got scratched or bitten, better safe than sorry.
Robin
I agree with what others have said…contact a wildlife rehabber. This is an odd time for bats to be out and about (especially during the day), and my inclination would be to assume the little guy is sick too.
Even if it’s healthy, it wouldn’t do well released so far from home. Bats are social creatures…they live in colonies…and it’s going to want to be with its friends and family (in fact, if it’s a female, it may even have pups that need it).
Thanks for looking after the little one. I love bats…they’re fascinating creatures!
Redwolf
Well, the poor little creature remained lively until time for me to go home, so we took the cardboard box it was in and put it in our little back yard at work. It was looking around as we left.
I think you were right that it should stay in a familiar area, so my hope is that it returned to whatever outside entrance they’ve found to our attic.
As I said, we do occasionally get bats in the office areas, and I’m not so sure that they’re sick but have just chosen the wrong exit. If we don’t find them soon enough, they do die. Even if we spot them, it’s hard to extract them from the old-fashioned high ceilings. (We’re in what was once the Frederick home of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney of the Dred Scott decision.)
They also play hob with the motion-detecting alarm system, as you might imagine.
For future reference, I’ll try to find a wildlife rehabilitator and ask his (or her) advice.
But gosh, aren’t they cute!
M
OT on OT: one of the most famous
and important philosophy articles
of the 70s was entitled ‘What
is it like to be a Bat?’
A fellow I knew in college had
a pet flying squirrel. Man was
that neat! Somewhere along the
evolutionary line to bats.
A couple of bat items:
I remember reading in a wildlife magazine years ago an article by a writer who had a pet bat. The bat was nocturnal and the writer diurnal. The bat liked the writer and so to be close to him, would sleep hanging from the writer’s shirt pocket while he typed (the writer typed; the bat slept).
Possibly in the same article, I read about a bat researcher who had several species of bat for pets. He had in the same cage, one of a social species and one of a solitary species. It seems there was a time when the solitary one was sick, and the social one sensed this and wanted to do the natural thing, which was to cosy up next to him and wrap his wing around him. However, the solitary one would have no part of this and kept edging further and further towards the end of the hanging bar in the cage while the social bat kept edging closer and closer. I don’t remember reading how this turned out.
Best wishes,
Jerry
P.S. You gotta love an animal that can eat its weight in mosquitoes.
Hope the little fella’s doing well 
they are lovely little critters.. I know here in Seattle its quite natural for the bats to be out and about.. even our plants are budding with this casual winter we’re having.. its like a cool spring… fleas didnt get to die off, mosquitoe’s either, it seems.. i dont think its unusual for a bat to get a little misguided in its wanderings.. they dont have a problem with being about people and cities.. there are bats galore living in the parking garages of a bellevue mall just across the lake.
On 2003-01-28 04:30, SeraFin wrote:
… there are bats galore living in the parking garages of a bellevue mall just across the lake.
Heh, I’ve been to that mall quite a few times… I never realized that.
yeah, the one downtown bellevue.. if you go there in the evening, when the roads quiet (aka after say 10 pm 
) you can hear them screeking about.. i used to live down there and shop at that qfc, heard and saw them often..
They’re active here now too, but our winters are much milder…didn’t the east coast just get hit with a major cold wave? Most bats over there should still be hybernating.
They are just the cutest little things and, as someone else said, you gotta love a critter that eats its weight in mosquitos!
Redwolf
On 2003-01-27 23:16, jim stone wrote:
OT on OT: one of the most famous
and important philosophy articles
of the 70s was entitled ‘What
is it like to be a Bat?’
Ah, the old mind/body problem; I really dug Nagel’s paper back when I was studying the philosophy of mind. A great analogy the guy chose.
Anyway: in future, it’s probably best to bring bats found at this time of year to a rehab center, although you probably did this particular bat a good service in simply releasing it in familiar territory.
Not all bats hibernate, and some can withstand pretty low temps, especially around cities. Other species migrate, etc. A good reference for you infuture is this one:
Which is the homepage for Bat Conservation Intl, and which even has lists of bat species by U.S. state.
I’m very glad that the days when most people would simply step on an unwanted chiropterid visitor are (mostly) over; thanks from the bottom of my volunteer-wildlife-rehabilitator’s heart (my wife is the pro…).
[snip]
I’m very glad that the days when most people would simply step on an unwanted chiropterid visitor are (mostly) over; thanks from the bottom of my volunteer-wildlife-rehabilitator’s heart (my wife is the pro…).
Most of us in the Roger Brooke Taney Building kind of like the little guys. They provide a welcome (if sometimes startling) diversion from programming multimedia software.
As for stepping on them…just can’t do it. While I will set spring traps for mice, if I can rescue one the cats have cornered, it gets tossed outside to fend for itself. (I have little doubt it finds its way back inside.)
I also get baby snakes in the house, apparent offspring of the adults under the house. Mostly black rat snakes (which aren’t black at that age), and a few eastern milk snakes (which look a little like copperheads). They get tossed outdoors at the feet of my garden statue of St. Francis (or alternatively, at the Buddha statue).
Wildlife rehab sounds interesting…are there special requirements?
M
On 2003-01-29 07:14, mvhplank wrote:
Wildlife rehab sounds interesting…are there special requirements?
M
Depends on the state. Some have relatively strict licensing requirements for rehabbers (though some rehab centers can take volunteers who aren’t licensed). Other states have few or no requirements (which can be a bit scary).
Some of the non-licensed rehabbers out here (CA is pretty lax) are of the coo-and-stroke-the-cute-animal stripe, which although warm and seemingly nice, is a bad way to go about rehabbing wildlife. The cooing and stroking tends to either a) stress the animal out of its wits (most don’t want human contact), or b) habituate the animal to human contact, thus making it difficult or impossible to release later. Some of the nonlicensed folks are great, though. The majority of the good ones work directly with a center, or in cooperation with one, rather than out of their homes, but there are good folks in both arenas.
Most states have at least a few high-quality rehab centers, though, and many specialize. I work mostly with waterbirds and seabirds, and do oil-spill response, etc., although we do handle other wildlife on occasion. Other folks specialize in sea mammals, or bats, or songbirds. . .
If you volunteer, be aware that it’s not glorious work, but dirty and often menial. Scrubbing cages, preparing foods, cleaning buildings, and so forth. But over time, volunteers often get to learn more interesting stuff: how to draw and analyze blood samples, administer meds, assist in medical procedures, handle the animals when necessary, and so forth.
And if songbirds are your thing, you may have a center nearby that just needs volunteers to feed orphans – those little dudes eat a lot – and who can avoid the menial cleaning chores, etc (which are very necessary, make no mistake, but also not everyone’s cup of tea). Our local center can have hundreds of baby birds in at a time during the spring, and the retired folks around here love feeding them, so those volunteers do feedings alone.
Even if you have to do menial stuff, though, it’s a great feeling to see a wild animal be released to live out its life. Opening a crate and watching an endangered pelican or murrelet fly out to sea is a glorious thing.
(On the other hand, rehab can be dangerous; I have lots of scars, as does my wife. Cormorants are terrifying, geese can break your nose with a wing flap, a bobcat can try to eviscerate you. . . oh, do I have tales.)
Here’s one source of rehab info on the web; you can look up local centers through this site, I believe:
I would contact Bat Conservation International about your flying furry friends. I also like bats, and hearing about your interest and dislike of harming them warms my heart. The BCI could offer help, however, it sounds like the bats in your area are in desprate need for shelter. Ask the BCI about setting up “bat houses” so they will shelter in there.
Years ago while traveling in the Texas
panhandle I stopped at a remote gas station to use the facilities. Next to the front door was a good sized wooden box with a three inch screened peep hole in the top and a sign that said “Albino Bat”. You guessed it…inside, at the bottom of the box was a white baseball bat. Doh !
Stan, every gas station in the panhandle is “remote”!(I spent a lifetime just outside Borger one summer)
I also love bats, 'cause I hate mosquitos!
We keep a bat house up in a dead tree, out in the pasture closest to the house!
Holt
[ This Message was edited by: Holt on 2003-01-29 19:13 ]