We arrived to the following:
So I put on some leather gloves and grabbed a towel - the bat was sleepy and weak so I considered this as the best and least stressful approach (I'd brought a bucket and a pillowcase as well). I also wanted to be able to handle him in order to release him onto a tree later as it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for this bat to take off from the ground. Climbed a stepladder, and here's me preparing for the capture:
I easily caught him and safely and properly restrained him in the towel. There just happened to be an entire troop of Boy Scouts finishing their meeting at the same time, so of course I was mobbed and we had a few minutes of "Show and Tell". They had a lot of questions but I was happy to answer them because I think bats are wonderful. Of course some were a bit wary but I explained that this species is awesome because of how many bugs they eat (including the bugs that annoy humans like mosquitos)! Here's a photo of me doing a little explaining (note the Scout over my shoulder shooting a video on his phone - cell phones were out everywhere it was hilarious), excuse the goofy expression on my face, I was talking:
And here is the very unhappy bat himself. He didn't try to bite (woulda if he coulda, however - I didn't give him the chance) but he was emitting distress calls and I tried to limit his time restrained to only a few minutes.
I then released him outside - he had a hard time of it, but after several tries I got him latched onto a big tree which he climbed, so I am hopeful that he will make it.
After several hours of research I was able to finally identify the bat as a Big Brown Bat, Eptesicus fuscus. The problem was that the photos my mom took were not quite clear enough and I couldn't remember what the tragus (part of the ear) looked like well enough to ID that way - this species is extremely similar to the Little Brown Bat, also known as the Little Brown Myotis (Myotis lucifugus). I'm proud of myself, as I finally identified it by dentition. :D Found some photos of skulls of both species, did comparisons, and the bottom teeth in that last photo are in sharp enough focus that I was able to make a for-sure ID.
In my research I came across some interesting information about this particular species. For example - "Males usually live alone; females gather in maternity colonies in the spring and summer to give birth and raise their young. A maternity colony may include 20 - 75 adults and their offspring. Females in the eastern United States usually give birth to twins; those in the West usually have a single pup each year. Females may return to the same colony year after year." (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History) What especially interests me is the difference in offspring number regarding geographic location. What's up with that? Increased predation/other dangers for young bats in the east? WNS? (Keep reading for info on that - it's moving west slowly but surely). Who knows!
And for those who don't know much about bats, I must bring up the subject of White-nose Syndrome, something that is killing our bats and we know little to nothing about. It is wiping out entire colonies and we don't even know for sure how it is spread, much less have any idea how to treat it. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a good page on it with current news and make sure to click on "Learn more about white-nose syndrome". A sobering statistic from that page says that since this was first discovered in February of 2006, "More than a million hibernating bats have died since then, making WNS the worst wildlife health crisis in memory." It's something to be aware of, as bats are a very important part of our ecosystem and without them... well... I don't even want to go there! There's enough mosquitos in Kansas already.
Signing off for now!
~ Bat Woman
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