It flys, but is not a bird

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dwatsonbb
dwatsonbb's picture
It flys, but is not a bird

Today we were called to rescue a micro bat. This little one has possibly become disoriented, when coming out of "Torpor".

"Torpor is a state of decreased physiological activity in an animal, usually by a reduced body temperature and metabolic rate. Torpor enables animals to survive periods of reduced food availability." Quoted from Wikipedia

Litlle Forest Bat "vespadelus vulturnis" one of the smallest bats in the world.

This one will be released just after dusk this evening, as close to where it was found as possible (was found in Main Street of a large country town) in a reserve, where hopefully it will survive.

Araminta
Araminta's picture

I love those tiny ones. In the South of France during the day they sleep in tiny cracks in the walls of houses, but at dusk hundreds (or more) whizz around roofs and chuch towers and the like. They mingle with the Swallows, flying as fast as they do, hunting insects. They also make a similar sound like the Swallows, an extremely high pitched sound. To me this sound always represented summer.Sometimes they landed (or fell?) on the ground, as children we used to pick them up and hung them in a tree, because once on the ground, they can't fly off. From close up they really look like mice, in French they are called Chauve-souris. I wonder if they are a different kind, because the translation means : bold mouse ?

M-L

Reflex
Reflex's picture

Wow that is tiny!

Samford Valley Qld.

timmo
timmo's picture

How cool!

I often wonder how common these microbats are in and around the city. They're so tiny and not particularly noisy, that you wouldn't know if they are around.

Cheers
Tim
Brisbane

Wollemi
Wollemi's picture

I love bats, the only mammal capable of true flight! I do some wildlife rescue too and sometimes get called to rescue them. Microbats, the insectivore bats, come in many species in Australia and it is always a challenge to ID them correctly.

Macrobats, the fruit and blossom bats come in several species and the main fruit-bats found in the Sydney region are Black Flying Fox, Little Red Flying Fox and the Grey Headed Flying Fox.

In far north Qld there is the Spcetacled Flying Fox which has a really small home range. The Spectacled Flying Foxes in Qld have this year been giving birth to premature and deformed babies, there is a suspicion that the pregnant mothers were poisoned, which is plain stupid to do, and many Qld councils carry out 'dispersals' that are very inhumane and cause all kinds of stress to the Flying Foxes.

I know that many people have varied opinions about bats and about flying foxes in particular but personally I am against anything that changes the ecological balance and I am against Flying foxes being dispersed for a whole lot of reasons.

Would encourage everyone to become more familiar with the researched facts about bats and not take too much notice of the media.

dwatsonbb
dwatsonbb's picture

Agreed Wollemi, they are difficult to ID, but the give away in this case is the white "tragus", the piece of white flesh in the ear, the other species are difficult to separate. We don't see many as far as rescue goes, but they are apparently plentiful in some areas.

Also forgot to follow up, was a successful release that evening, placed as directed, left alone, and when I returned 10 minutes later, it had moved on.

Thanks all for looking.

Dale Huonville, Tasmania

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