bats

Tail of a Night Bloomer – Bat Bud

The Lasiurine bats, including this eastern red bat female, use their furry tail as a blanket, poncho, and cloaking device to keep warm, dry, and hidden while they hang from the foliage.  The foot is just big enough to wrap around the stem of a leaf, and they’ll tuck under leaves to keep cool and hide from birds.  They hide their wings and head as they curl up into that long tail, and, hanging from one foot, look like nothing more than a fuzzy ball on a stem, a dead leaf, or a pinecone.
As such, they are bat buds, sleeping all day then blooming at dark to transform into voracious predators of night flying insects.
This beauty is a juvenile, almost full-sized, soon to be released into the wild. We know her from her white mark on the ear, designating her as our 99th intake this year back on June 23rd.  We’ve taken in 35 more in the last few weeks, making designing unique marks a challenge!

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Frito the Free-tailed Bat

Andrea found Frito in an open stairwell, hiding from the grackles that were stalking him like a pack of velociraptors.
She called us and watched over him until we arrived, saving him from a tragic end.
He was not injured, just a little disoriented and is eating and flying well in the aviary.
Soon to be released.  Nice work Andrea!

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Ball o’ Bats!

These Eastern red bat pups find their mum each morning, even though only two are still nursing. Orphan Michelle on top right has adopted the family!
In the wild, when pups start wrestling , as pups will, birds (especially grackles and bluejays) take notice and attack them.  The mum is forced to fly off with all those heavy pups clinging to her. People  find the exhausted mum and her pups in a ball and bring them to us.  We give the pups a chance grow into self-sufficient young adults, hunting and drinking on the wing, before release, usually with a few weeks. What a privilege to get to share a bond with these amazing creatures, before they resume their wild and free lives!

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Found a Bat?

Love this link from Bat Conservation Trust about How to Contain a Bat.
But here in Central Texas, call our Austin Bat Refuge Hotline at 512-695-4116 or 512-799-8847

http://www.bats.org.uk/pages/containingabat.html

 

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Eating practice

Catching prey is only half the battle! Bats still have to curl & kick to subdue their catch while flying. This eastern red male still needs to refine his technique!

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What a great mum!

This is an eastern red bat mum that has four nursing pups.  (Yes, it’s the bat you brought us Laurie, we found another pup tucked  under her wing!)  She flies very well, as do two of her pups, the other two are not yet volant, but they all find each other the next morning.  She is doing a great job raising these pups and we’re happy to help her get over that little glitch that found her grounded.

Eastern reds have four nipples.  Both nipples on her left side are visible in this photo and it’s apparent that the lower one is offset, to the outside, from the midline of her chest. That offset allows all four pups to fit symmetrically so that all can nurse without overlapping.  Overlapping would cause more jostling for position, attracting attention from predators, and so has been evolutionarily eliminated.

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26 West pup

This evening bat pup had been hanging low on a wall for a day and a half over in West Campus UT.  He was brought to us to make sure he’s OK and we marked his ear with some yellow eyeshadow .  He is only half the size of an adult, but foraging on his own and here we see him practicing his drinking skills.  He made around ten passes over the drinking pond, slowly calibrating his approach, getting closer and closer each time and eventually getting two or three gulps of water.
We’ll give him about a week of practice, then set him on his way in a more wooded area where he’ll find an evening bat roost in a hollow tree.  He found the other evening bats in our bat box easily enough, so we’re sure he’ll do the same in the wild.

What a cool little bat!  Thanks to Rachel Ellerd and Carin Peterson of UT Animal Make-Safe

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Late Last Night

Love the wing shape in this photo of an eastern red pup (17-79) brought to us by Adam Warren from Silver Dale in SW Austinbat rescue

Lots of action in the flight cage last night!austin bat rescue rehabilitation

This bat is curling up on a moth it just caught, rolling it into its tail membrane and kicking it to subdue and eat it.  All of this done while flying and scarcely missing a beat.

A closeup of that shot

Adam’s bat showing his chops

Pretty wing conformation on this tri-colored bat.

Here’s another bat curling up on a moth.  Lots of action under the blacklight!

This Barred Owl juvy was raised nearby and we’re trying to run him off.  Way easier said than done.

Finally got him to go, but grudgingly and he’ll probably be back before the night is through.  At least the pups will recognize a predator the next time they see one.  For many bat pups, the firs time they see an owl is the last time they see anything, so we’re glad ours get another chance.

In the morning, pups were scattered all over the place, this one right out in the open.  He is the first of Laurie’s pups to fly off on his own.  The mum flew off with the others still on her.  We found her and reunited them so they could snuggle through the day.

These pups are trying to look like just another dead leaf.

Here’s Laurie’s mum with her pups on her, but with Alvaro and Michelle trying to adopt her.  We got them all straightened out, reunited the family, fed and watered all for the day.  What a night!

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Morning after First Flight

We opened all the pup tents last night for the first time.  We played lifeguard for a while as the pups rolled out, some in flight and some on the ground!  We picked them up one after another to give them another chance to drop into flight.  All of them got it by the end of the night, but some were low on the flight cage walls in the morning.  We are so proud of them!

These two pups found their mum and here all are enjoying a nice breakfast

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