Rescue & Release

This year’s first 3 evening bat pups

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Look at the color change as they get older – black when tiny turning a beautiful mahogany as they near adulthood.

Pup 2 on the left about 12 days old – 2.9 grams – being fed every 3 hours
Found in a Houston backyard next to an apartment complex being demolished.  He was still clinging to his dead mum when Savannah rescued him.  Thanks Savannah!

Pup 3 in the middle about 3 days old – 1.9 grams – being fed every 2 hours
Found in Kingsland with her injured mum at the base of a tree.  This pup brought to us by Ally when the mum died.  Thanks for trying to help the mum Ally and likewise for bringing us this pup.

Pup 1 (Fury) on the right about 51 days old – 8.0 grams – being hand fed once a day in the flight cage bat box
Born to a rehabilitating bat who came to us from Adamsville, already pregnant, unbeknownst to us.  We were treating the mum for a fungal infection when she gave birth 05 Apr 2016.

The two pups on the left are wonderful, playful little guys that love to romp around and purr like crazy when their bellies are full.  Fury (on the right) was not happy about being associated with these infants, he’s a big bat now and he and his mum are almost ready for release.

Feeding just these pups every 3 hours and every 2 hours makes for a busy schedule.

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Eve the Evening bat & Fury the Night Fury

Here’s our first glimpse of Fury, Eve’s pup, his tiny wing sticking up above her belly.

evening bat and pup at Austin Bat Refuge

Eve the evening bat and her pup Fury the furious Night Fury

Eve came to us in a piece of firewood that had been standing dead timber on a ranch in Adamsville until 28 Jan 2016 when it was felled, limbed, cut into pieces, and run through a log splitter, revealing Eve uninjured in her tree cavity.  The log was quickly taped back together and put in a box and brought to us by the landowners, by way of our good friend Ed Sones.  Since she was missing fur in a circular pattern on her back, we swabbed and cultured for ringworm.  Three weeks later the culture was negative so we just are giving her supportive care until she regrows the fur that will allow her to effectively thermo-regulate once she’s released to find a new roost.
Since she had a heating pad above her pup tent while undergoing treatment, she must have thought spring started in February, so consequently she gave birth to Fury on 05 April 2016, one of the first births in the country, at least the first one named after Toothless the Night Fury, star of How to Train Your Dragon (who, of course, was modeled after a baby evening bat).

Eve the evening bat's home that was cut and split and brought to Austin Bat Refuge

Eve’s tree house that was cut for firewood

Fury grew quickly to 5.1 grams within a week of birth.  His mum was very attentive and he reached 7 grams in three weeks.

Eve has since weaned little Fury, always a sketchy time in bat rehab.  He did not like the formula we used and accepted it even less when we added blended mealworms to the mix.  Thankfully, he is now transitioning to whole mealworms so it looks like he will soon get the hang of self-feeding.

Here’s their log, hung as a roost, and allowing Fury to leap out and practice flying when he gets the urge.  They can come back and roost in the maternity pup tent (rigged to stay out of the way, below) if they like or return to Eve’s tree house if they feel like it.  Last night, with the storms, they stayed in the tree house all night.

Eve's tree house with new hinges and latch at Austin Bat Refuge

Eve & Fury’s tree house with new hinges and latch,  The pup tent Fury was born in hung below

Flight school – Here’s Fury flapping like crazy to get back to the roost Fury’s first leap – flight school
This is the best motivation for young pups just figuring out what these wing things are for.

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Hoary bat / rainy day pine cone

Look like a pine cone to you?  That’s what this beautiful hoary bat wants you to think.  Let’s see who she really is!

hoary bat Austin Bat Refuge rescue rehabilitation release

hoary bat pine cone

Found on the ground at the University of Texas and brought to us by Carin Peterson and Rachel Ellerd of UT Animal MakeSafe

hoary bat Austin Bat Refuge rescue rehabilitation release

The following is our favorite impression of this bat.  Wonderful photo by Carin Peterson.

hoary bat sloth slat bloth eskimo parka bat

hoary bat sloth slat bloth eskimo parka bat

 

Austin Bat Refuge rescue rehabilitation release

hoary bat

hoary bat Austin Bat Refuge rescue rehabilitation release

hoary bat

Imagine how different this map view must have looked to her with all the night lighting, as she flew through on her spring migration. According to Bats of Texas by Ammerman et al 2012, hoary bat females have been documented as traveling as far as 1800 km during their migration.  What caused her to end up grounded at 2317 Speedway on the UT campus?  She seems completely alert and healthy.  Had she been looking for a drink from the Turtle Pond?
Did the lights disorient her as she was migrating to her summer grounds up north?  Maybe she was feeding around the lights on campus and not having much luck.

University of Texas hoary bat's eye view

UT hoary bat’s eye view

She was emaciated and even after 3 cc’s of blended mealworms we could still see her backbone through her belly. She’s likely pregnant (since mating season is in the fall for hoary bats) so she must have been ravenous and could have ended up on the ground weak from hunger.
Was she migrating with a group of other females?  The males don’t travel with the females to the summer grounds, they summer in the western states while the females head north and east.

hoary bat first night in flight cage

hoary bat first night in flight cage

The first night in the flight cage she flew but not for long.  Just one trip down and one trip back, so we don’t know if she sustains flight.

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hoary bat flight cage

She did love being outdoors, even in the rain.  She didn’t seek shelter when the heavy rains came in so she was pretty cold and wet in the morning, but no worse for the wear.

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hoary bat flight cage

Her forearm length of 57 mm is at the top of the range for this species (46-58 mm) and her body length from nose to base of tail of 90mm is also above the average 80 mm.    This is what we would expect since females are larger than males.   However, her weigth of 27.8g is not as high on the scale (20-35 g) as we would expect given her length.  Her body/mass index of 0.49 seems substantial, but the eyeball test says she seems in need of a few more good meals.  A rough measure of her wingspan, performed by stretching one wing out and doubling the nose to tip measurement, came out around 400 mm or about 15-3/4″.   We obviously did not stretch the wing completely out, just as much as we could without causing discomfort this being a live bat and not a specimen, so this is probably quite a bit shorter than what we might expect to find.
It’s striking to us that her feet (11 mm) are so much larger and stronger than other Lasiurans.

hoary bat flight cage

hoary bat flight cage

 

hoary bat in pine tree

hoary bat in pine tree

 

hoary bat in pine tree

hoary bat in pine tree

 

hoary bat in pine tree Austin Bat Refuge rescue rehabilitation release

hoary bat in pine tree

 

hoary bat in pine tree Austin Bat Refuge rescue rehabilitation release

hoary bat in pine tree

One night later, she’s flying now

hoary bat flying Austin Bat Refuge rescue rehabilitation release

Look at that beautiful golden fur all the way out past her wrists

hoary bat flying Austin Bat Refuge rescue rehabilitation release

hoary bat flying

According to Bats of Texas, Ammerman et al 2012, hoary bats represented 41% (1,023 of 2,486) of all bat fatalities at wind-energy facilities.  Males represent an even higher proportion (89%) of bats killed at Rocky Mountain wind farms (Kuntz et al. 2007), most of those adult males during fall migrations (Arnett et al 2008).
She has quite a task ahead of her making it up to the north country and raising her pups this summer.  We hope we can set her back on track after her Austin pit stop.

hoary bat flying collard greens Austin Bat Refuge rescue rehabilitation release

She’s lightning fast so photos are tough to get without a painstaking setup.  But even though it’s blury, this photo really shows the magnificent sweep of her downstroke

hoary bat flying Austin Bat Refuge rescue rehabilitation release

She’s still only 28.1 grams soaking wet this morning.

This shot shows the pigment of her upper wing membrane changes color corresponding to the glorious fur under her wing.
It’s hard to believe the “pinecone” can drop from the branch and become this amazing flying dynamo.

hoary bat flying Austin Bat Refuge rescue rehabilitation release

hoary bat Swiss chard

Here’s a photo of our girl as she leaped out of the hand to resume her migration.  We set her back on course headed northeast over Mueller Lakes last night.  We are thrilled we were able to participate in her recovery after she was rescued by Carin Peterson and Rachel Ellerd at UT Animal MakeSafe.  After a week or so of good meals, her weight increased from 27 grams to around 33 grams at the time of release, so she will be well fortified to journey up through Arkansas to her summer grounds in the northeast where she’ll give birth and raise her two pups.
Give us a wave when you and the pups pass overhead this fall sweetheart, it was great getting to know you!

hoary bat release Austin Bat Refuge rescue rehabilitation release

hoary bat release

P.S. – On your way north you might see some big revolving things that look like maybe they are trees you could feed around.  They are wind turbines!  We know  you are inquisitive, but please just stay away from them.  And tell the kids!

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Releasing a Bat

I just had an amazing experience releasing a rehabilitated bat. They are so tiny! She was eager to join the party at Congress Bridge. Thanks Lee and Dianne. Your passion and love for bats is inspiring. Thank you for the great service you give to the Austin community and especially the bats!

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She’s sustaining flight tonight

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Yes she has teeth, but she’s not snarling, just echolocating, to see in the dark and to find one of the juicy moths or beetles flying about the enclosure.  After parsing many call sequences from that evening, we analyzed this one call out of a call sequence we think is hers. Many of our local species, including yellows are not in standard call libraries, but this call is similar to others we have recorded from northern yellows. We hope to get a voucher call when she is released soon.  Voucher calls are recorded from a hand-released bat when no others are flying in the immediate vicinity.  They form the basis of call libraries and that is what we’ll use to develop our own.

Lasiurus intermedius28Feb2016

 

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Godzilla & Mothra

northern yellow and velifer

Northern yellow bats are awesome creatures.  At 28.3 grams, she is three times the weight of the velifer in the upper right of the photo.  Check out those beautiful broad wings.   We’re so lucky to have them in Austin!  Let’s help them out by not trimming the skirt of dead fronds under the green crown of our palm trees.  They have evolved to blend in perfectly with that habitat.  They feel so secure there, that they are slow to awaken from torpor, and often plummet to the ground when the dead fronds are trimmed.

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Local Rehabilitation Intake Map

Here’s a compilation of our local rehabilitation intakes.  Lots of overlap downtown obscures pins.  So many people went out of their way to help these bats!  Thank you all so much.

Key is 1-Mexican free-tailed, 2- Eastern red bat, 3- Northern yellow, 4- Evening bat, 5- Tri-colored bat, 6- Cave myotis, 7- Southern yellow bat, 8- Seminole bat

2-20-2016 7-41-57 AM

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Getting ready

Our over-winter evening bat guests have been shredding the flight cage the last few nights.  First clear night we’ll wait till the flyers are hunting in the flight cage, then we’ll take the non-volants out of the bat box and put them in a pup tent.  The next morning we’ll have only flyers in the box and we can gather them for release.  These are very cool little bats!

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