Tri-Colored Bat

The famed “Chicken Nuggets” of Texas cave tours, this is a tiny bat with an incredibly fast motor. They spin and click on the exam table to the point that they resemble wind up toys. They are lightning fast in the flight cage. Distinctive pink/orange forearms help identify them as they are photographed leaving their roosts.

Here’s a good look at a beauty, just prior to release:

Have a long and happy life, little girl.

Did she circle back to say “Thanks, humans”?

Tri-colored bat fur (each hair) is dark brown below, light brown in middle, and medium brown on top.

With a name like tri-colored bat, you’d think they’d be red, white, and green!

Although most commonly encountered in caves, they can roost in foliage in summer months. We often have them brought to us by people finding them roosting in folded up patio umbrellas and lately from upper levels of apartment buildings with open hallways. We think they fly into the openings in covered hallways because they resemble cave mouths.

IUCN Red List info

Range map: http://maps.iucnredlist.org/map.html?id=17366

Species details: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/17366/0

This bat has been hammered by White-nose Syndrome in the eastern part of the country as far west as Minnesota, where the famed Soudan Mine colony has been confirmed as being Pd positive.

Some of our favorite rehab bats