I have a bat problem

[den]

Yesterday I was handed a Vespadelus vulturnus, a little forest bat who weighed a whole 5 grams. She is uninjured, healthy and quite fat. It was a simple rescue and release.

Or so I thought *sfx: dramatic sting*

I thought, she's fat and healthy. I'll just hang the bat tent in the tree and she'll fly off. The plan went swimmingly well, except for the bit about the bat flying off.This morning I grabbed the tent and was startled by a tiny growl. The bat was still in there!. Bugger. So I shut the tent door and waited for night. Tonight I fed her some meal worms because she missed a feed last night, and to ensure she found her way outside the tent I removed her and placed her on top. She scuttled around for a few minutes, found the openeing, and climbed back into the tent. Bugger! So I evicted her again with much grumpyness, placed her on top, then zipped the door shut. I hope she leaves tonight.

I hope she's not just free-loading on my meal worms.

Comments

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

She is definately pregnant, but she's not ill. She is in excellent contition. But a cloth tent is the wrong place for a pup. She needs to find her maternity colony and settle in with the other mums.

[beki.livejournal.com]

I didnt realize the females would have a colony all of their own with newborns. A friend of mine has a couple of bat boxes up on a couple of huge trees in her yard. I just figured you might have something like that hanging around as it were :)