All this heavy rainfall we have been receiving recently has had many of us headed for the high ground,  including our latest refugee. I was tipped off to zir presence by Wayne Kickery.  I’m not really up to date with my bat species,  my best guess at the moment is that our new friend seemed rather small for a big brown bat, so zi might very well be a Little brown bat. Perhaps big brown bats are just getting smaller.  I’m pretty clueless here. The bat seemed relaxed as zi rested upon the wall, and practiced some occasional yoga.  Sometime around dusk yesterday, our new friend decided the air was dry enough and buggy enough to venture back out and hunt for some insects.  We wish zir well.

Some of the cool things that I do know about bats is that bats are a lot more like us than for example, rodents.

They birth a single “pup” at a time (Sometimes twins)

In the example of vampire bats which have been studied fairly extensively…Vampire bats are known to adopt orphaned pups. Bats produce oxytocin when in close contact with one another, for example while grooming.   Vampire bats even share their food with strangers who haven’t had enough to eat.  (Yes.  You read all of that right!) 

I realize many people go on the disease reservoir train when it comes to bats.  To that I say this:  Do not pet the bats , don’t eat the bats, and because they’re so much like us, be careful when handling their guano.  (Common sense stuff)

Bats, as you probably already know have taken a steep decline in population numbers due to white-nose syndrome as well as from barotraumatic injuries from flying too close to the eddies produced by wind turbines.  The mortality estimates have that pegged as twice that of annual bird collisions.

In closing to I’ll say one last thing about the aerial insectivores of the night shift,  Perhaps we may want to consider a roosting box for the bats.  (over on the hill).