Fact Tuesday: bats

It’s Fact Tuesday, where I ask colleagues to tell me their favourite science fact. Jennifer, our Environmental Programs Coordinator, amazed me with the fact that one in five species of mammal is a bat. One in five! Bats live in every area of the earth except for Antarctica, and there are over 1,100 kinds of bats. That's a lot of different kinds of bats!

We have two fruit bats that live here at the Science Centre all of the time, and in the winter we house Big Brown Bats that have been found by the public. These are the type of bats that live in Saskatchewan, and they hiberrnate in the winter until their food supply returns (this includes insects like mosquitoes). When they are disturbed and wake up during their winter sleep, they need support until spring when the insects return. And that's where we come in!

We have a partnership with the University of Regina called The Bat Rescue Mission. If you find a bat in the winter, call us at 791-7900. We will contact the U of R and they will pick up the bat and give emergency first aid. When they are sure the bat is doing fine (usually in a couple of days), the bat will be brought to the Science Centre to stay with us until spring when they can be safely released.

Big Brown Bat winter shelter

So, today I asked Jennifer for the fact of the day because it's Jennifer's last day at the Science Centre! She is moving on to a great new job and we are proud of her! But we will also miss her. Good luck Jennifer! And:

Stay curious,
Collette

 

 


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Showing comments 1 to 4 of 9 | Next | Last
Shannon
Posts: 8
Comment
Bat flying in my son's bedroom
Reply #9 on : Wed June 16, 2010, 19:52:02
Hi,
We live near the Forestry Farm in Saskatoon. Last night we had a small brown bat flying around our son's room. My husband opened the window and it flew out. My two concerns are where could it have entered and the clean up? Some bat droppings on the bed and floor. My husband checked the attic/eaves troughs and there was no sign of nests. We called animal control and were directed to an exterminator.
Thanks
Anonymous
Posts: 8
Comment
Re:
Reply #8 on : Tue June 08, 2010, 17:43:33
Hi Colleen,

In response to your question, it would make a lot of sense to have more bats looking for a warm, dark, quiet place to spend the day if many established trees were recently removed from your area. I think you are likely right.
You may be interested in the following website where you may also find a few more answers to your questions:
http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=63
As far as detering bats from roosting in your home, your best bet is to plug any spaces by which they could enter. Since your house is quite old, this could be difficult! Another thing you could try is to build or buy a bat house for the displaced bats in your area to roost in. This way, they might be more attracted to the bat house and less likely to look for shelter in your house! There are some designs on the following website, or you can look on the web to find many other designs.
http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=323
One more thing I wanted to mention - though most bats are very healthy animals, they ARE wild critters and should be dealt with carefully. If you find a bat in your home, be sure to call animal control for someone in your area who has been vaccinated for rabies to deal with the bat. If you do need to capture the bat, be sure to use gloves or a towel as the animal will obviously be scared and more likely to bite. Regardless, contact your local health region as well and they can also tell you how to proceed if you think anyone may have been bitten. Few wild animals actually have rabies, but it's always better to be on the safe side!

This being said, I love bats and I'm glad to hear that you are concerned about the ones in your area! The worst thing people can do is panic, but it sounds like you handled the situation very well.

Send in a photo of your bat house if you end up making one! We'd love to see it.

Thank you for your question, and best of luck!
Colleen S.
Posts: 8
Comment
Bat in my house
Reply #7 on : Tue June 08, 2010, 14:58:47
Last night, my daughter awoke to a small bat flying in her bedroom. We live near moosemountain prov. Park. Do we have lots of bats here? One block from my house, people cleared out a huge area of very old, and dying trees. Last week we had two blue daube wasps in house... Could this removal of established trees have left these critters homeless? My house is 100 years old, they must have gotten in thru some area I missed as we have been here for 3 summers and never had this happen before. Any ideas?
cparks
Posts: 2
Comment
Re:
Reply #6 on : Thu April 22, 2010, 17:14:17
Hey Steve!

We just got word yesterday that it looks like it will be mid-May. We were hoping it would be during April (Earth Month) and it was on that page until this morning in fact, but it seems a bit too chilly out in the evenings yet. We're hoping to release them on the last day of the Wings over Wascana festival, but that's still tentative. Call me at 791-7917 and I can get your email address from you and email you when we know.

I took a video of Sheila feeding one a few weeks ago but I can't seem to find where I put it when I took it off of my camera. Hopefully I find it soon - they are cute little munchkins when they eat! Chomp chomp!

Collette
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