Month: July 2018

The smallest red bat pup!

This little eastern red bat boy needs a name!  18-147 just doesn’t have much of a ring to it!
Rescued by Hannah, as grackles surround him on her breezeway floor in San Marcos, she brought him to our info table at the Congress Avenue Bridge last Friday.  He wowed those who witnessed the intake process, and all of us marveled at the beauty of this little pup!

Here he gets another meal of his milk-replacement formula as he gets a supervised introduction to the outdoor reds.

And now a mealworm to top off the tank as the flight cage reds in the background anticipate their breakfast.

And finally he takes his place in the flight cage stair-step heiarchy! (That’s him at the upper right)
He’s so little we’ll have to watch him real closely as he introduces himself to all the others

You can do it little pup!

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Thirsty red bat in Fed Ex warehouse

We want people to know that when bats swoop down low inside a building, they are not attacking, they are simply desperately thirsty!

This little red bat was trapped in a FedEx warehouse and was panicked and exhausted from dodging forklifts and floor polishers.  She was desperately thirsty and repeatedly skimmed what, in the natural world, would have to be water.

Bats’ echlocation calls bounce away off flat shiny surfaces, instead of back at them, so millions of years of evolution tell them the only thing that has that characteristic (in nature) is water.

Her exertions only gave her a tounge full of floor wax instead of water and after a long while she collapsed on the floor, completely spent.
Steve and co-workers came to the rescue and contained her and brought her to the refuge. Thanks so much y’all!


She had had it with humans by the time she came to us and was as feisty as can be, and that’s saying a lot for a red bat!
We fed and watered her as much as she would let us, and soon it was obvious that she was really wanted to go.

So at midnight, after one last long drink of water and a few more mealworms, we sent her back to the wild from the release platform.

All the best little bat!  Thanks for the visit!

 

 

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Green Release

Our red bat families are all color-coded (with corresponding control numbers) so that we can raise and release them together.  It was the “green family” release time last night and what a joy it was to see them all fly off together on a beautiful summer evening!

These red bats were  found by Brad Fellers on the ground at his Leander home and certainly would have been killed by predators had he not cared enought to save them.  The orphan was saved by Megan Rodriguez near Anderson Mill.
It was our great pleasure to help the pups grow up, turning from little furry blobs of bat blubber into amazing flying, hunting, and self-sufficient wonders of the night sky.

We placed each bat in a pup tent first and one by one we watered, fed, and showed them their back-up drinking trough; the infinity-edged pool that we’ll keep nice and full for them throughout the oncoming drought.
Here’s one of the pups drinking from the pool.

Once all were fed and watered, it was up to the release platform high in a tree above their former enclosure.  They were all super-excited and we first did a controlled release with the mum, then quickly set the pups free to follow her, so they could all stay together.

Here’s the happy family circling high in the sky, celebrating their freedom on a beautiful Texas summer night.  Live long lives little bats and make lots more beautiful bat babies! Thanks for the memories!

Please Donate at https://austinbatrefuge.org/donations/ to support Austin’s amazing bats!

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High Rise Sky Pup

Congress Bridge pups are starting to fly. Yay! This one tried to find his way back home at dawn and instead flew right in an open patio door on a 22nd floor condo! Nice work by a delighted resident brought him to us for safer fledging.

#lookedlikeacavetome #congressbridge #congressbats #congressbridgebats #mexicanfreetailedbats #austinbatrefuge #austinbats #atxbats #batifyatx #batifyaustin #skypuppy

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