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denI have just been handed a yellow bellied sheathtailed bat. She weighs 47 grams and has a wingspan of 50cm. That's 1/2 a METRE. She's HUGE!
And she's beautiful! She has fur like black velvet on her back, but her belly is a creamy white colour. Her foxy-face, wings and tail are a deep, shiny black. She's on the Schedule 2 Vulnerable list.
But
She was caught on a barbed wire fence and has lost the end joints of her left "little finger" and "ring finger." I'll take her to the zoovets tomorrow to see if anything can be done, but I think they'll recommend euthenasing her. I won't like that at all.
And
Sheathtailed bats are recognized carriers of lyssavirus. And she bit me right through the glove and drew blood. Bugger. My immunoglobulin levels are well up and I might not need a booster, but ABL isn't an instant-death thing so I have plenty of time to plan things out. The doc at the Base Hospital says we should keep the bat for 10 days to see if it is affected by the disease. He isn't concerned so I won't be.
I just want to hug her and pat her and call her George, except George isn't a female name that starts with "I", and she has very sharp teeth, and doesn't like being patted. Okay, so that wasn't such a good idea.
And she's beautiful! She has fur like black velvet on her back, but her belly is a creamy white colour. Her foxy-face, wings and tail are a deep, shiny black. She's on the Schedule 2 Vulnerable list.
But
She was caught on a barbed wire fence and has lost the end joints of her left "little finger" and "ring finger." I'll take her to the zoovets tomorrow to see if anything can be done, but I think they'll recommend euthenasing her. I won't like that at all.
And
Sheathtailed bats are recognized carriers of lyssavirus. And she bit me right through the glove and drew blood. Bugger. My immunoglobulin levels are well up and I might not need a booster, but ABL isn't an instant-death thing so I have plenty of time to plan things out. The doc at the Base Hospital says we should keep the bat for 10 days to see if it is affected by the disease. He isn't concerned so I won't be.
I just want to hug her and pat her and call her George, except George isn't a female name that starts with "I", and she has very sharp teeth, and doesn't like being patted. Okay, so that wasn't such a good idea.
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Date: 1 Mar 2003 18:37 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 19:16 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 19:41 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 18:54 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 19:05 (UTC)Imogen
Irmengarde
Iolanthe
Iris
Ipsissimus
**********
Good luck:)!
Got ahold of a baby raccoon a few times...
Date: 1 Mar 2003 19:15 (UTC)Essentialy, take a buzzsaw, a sabre-saw and a chainsaw and wrap em' in fur.
Add the snarling, hissing sounds made by the chestburster from "Aliens". (Which now that I think about it is *precisely* how that baby raccoon sounded.)
Now give this little wonder the magical ability to completely turn around inside it's own skin.
Boooy-howdy...I held onto that thing so tight it's eyes were bugging out, and I was STILL breaking out in a cold sweat as it slowly oozed it's way out of my grip, towards my unprotected arms and face.
Re: Got ahold of a baby raccoon a few times...
Date: 1 Mar 2003 20:31 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 19:22 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 19:33 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 20:31 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 20:37 (UTC)It means that if they save her she'll have to go into long-term care and she will present a risk to everyone who handles her. Also, the lost tip will unbalance her slightly. Lickily the sheathtails are "straight-line" hunters and don't need manouverability.
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Date: 1 Mar 2003 20:42 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 21:05 (UTC)Oh, and the usual things you get from animal bites.
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Date: 1 Mar 2003 21:41 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 Mar 2003 02:05 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 19:54 (UTC)I hope she does okay--if she can't still fly with the little joints gone, is there any way (or reason, for that matter, beyond humanitarian) to keep her around? Would she just be unhappy? Are the bats vulnerable enough that there are captive breeding programs?
Go, not-so-little bat!
no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 20:19 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 20:22 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2003 20:24 (UTC)Granted I'm sure there's not a lot of them floating around ;)
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Date: 1 Mar 2003 22:11 (UTC)