Going Batty

( Written 21 January 2022)

Until we moved to Atherton, I thought all bats used sonar. We have a wonderful bat hospital here. About 50% of bat species do not have sonar and are susceptible to colliding with many objects. Many of the injured bats brought to the hospital have had their wings shredded by barbed wire fences. I have heard that bats are drawn in by wind turbines. Our area has many different species of bats.

I would like to introduce you to Cecil, a micro bat we rescued at our place. Cecil’s problem was believing he was ready to leave his nursery and fly with the rest of the adults at dusk. He was just a little too young and his wings were not fully developed. He flew a few metres and landed near our shed. He crawled in and managed to get tangled in bird netting. Next day, when the weather was already hot, we heard his cries.

Cecil was obviously badly dehydrated but despite our efforts we could not get him to drink. Jenny, the founder of the bat hospital, came to the rescue. He was too dehydrated for her to give him water using simple equipment so off to hospital he went for a couple of weeks. Finally, he was ready to fly and join the adult bats. By this time, he was almost as big as the rest of the bats. The photo below was taken just before he was launched.

Microbats like Cecil do use sonar, just look at his big ears. Cecil and other Little Northern Freetail Bats love to eat insects and keep the mosquito levels down.