Jack Bat

[den]

I've known about Jack for 3 days. At first the lady was worried that the sun will get him, but she could "open a door to hide him." Which was ok. I thought he'd fly off into the night as bats do.

Next day he was still on the wall but in a different place. This also is not a problem. I thought he'd chosen that wall as His Place and was settling in. I told the lady as much, and left her to it confident the bat would be fine.

It wasn't until the third day that she told me the wall was actually an internal wall of a shed that was locked up every night. No wonder Jack was hanging around - he couldn't get out!

By the time I rescued him he'd lost a lot of weight, tipping the scales at 10g instead of the more normal 15g. So he's in for a week of R&R. Last night I fed him 8 meal worms but he was much nore interested in drinking water from the syringe. Tonight I expect he'll eat more. I want to see a fat bat by this time next week, then he'll be ready to face the winter.

Comments

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

Jack the Bat lost all his fat
The garden shed made him lean
So Battyden fed him lots of worms
and now he's fat and mean!

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Hey, something just occurred to me, and I'm sure you're the guy to know...

How does a pregnant bat manage? I mean, can she still fly? Does she get stuck somewhere for a day or two in labor and then require bat R&R to recuperate? Do they leave the young at a roost, or carry 'em around?

I can't believe I've never wondered that before...

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

The pup hangs of for about a week, then the mum leaves it in a creche with the pups of her fellow maternity colony mums. Aussie bats gather in small colonies, typically 10 to 100 animals, sometimes a few thousand. Finding their pups can't be a problem, but the mexican freetails have colonies of 1-10 million animals and I think it's amazing the mums can find their hungry pups amongst a million begging mouths.

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

Yay fat bats. He c'n have some of my fat if he wants.

I forget sometimes that you are heading into winter there...How much longer will the nice weather (and bat reports ;) last?

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I have to get him fat and out in a week. The cold weather starts in mid-May so he has to feed himself and find a winter roost by the start of June. Aussie bats generally don't hibernate like others. They seem to drop into a deep torpor they can come out of for some mid-winter opportunistic feeding.