Carol Bunyard Bat Rehab Specialist with WildCare
This was one of our most interesting programs to date in my opinion. Carol received her training in bat rehabilitation at BatWorld (AKA Bat Boot Camp) in Austin, TX in 2000. While the state license for a rehabilitator is only $5.00 there is a lot more to it than just having a license. To be able to handle the bats Carol has had a series of three pre-exposure rabies shots which by the way insurance generally doesn’t cover. If she does get bit then she receives two booster shots. In eight and one-half years of rehabbing she has had only four rabid bats.
While there is some cost to being a rehabber it is obvious from listening to Carol that there are also great benefits which are priceless. Oklahoma is home to 19 species of bats. Worldwide there are more than 1100 species. In a nod to Halloween Carol informed us that there are only three species of vampire bats and they all live in Latin America. Only one of those three prey on humans.
Carol provided us with a magnificent slide show of the bats she generally sees as a rehabber. The Eastern Red Bat (Lasiurus borealis) is the species seen most often. These are foliage dwelling bats. They hang out (literally) in trees rather than buildings or caves. Sometimes they get blown out during high winds or drop out due to exhaustion. They have litters of 1-5 pups and are solitary except during baby time. They are North America’s only sexually dimorphic bat species. Evening Bats (Nycticeius humeralis) are small chocolate brown in color with the females generally being larger than the males. They are crevice dwelling species and typically live longer than other bat species. Eastern Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus subflavus) are tiny bats that can’t fly in heavy winds. They must be grounded a lot in Oklahoma! They have very outgoing personalities. Mexican Free Tails (Tadarida brasiliensis) are a bat that those of us who have been to the Selman Living Laboratory (SLL) are familiar with. They are gregarious and need large colonies with social contact to grow properly. Oklahoma is home to several large maternity colonies. These bats fly very high and very fast. The Hoary Bat (Lasiurus cinereus) is one of our largest species. They are approximately 6 inches long & have a wing span of up to 24 inches. The Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) is common throughout North America, but Carol almost never gets any of them. They are crevice dwellers. Cave Myotis (Myotis velifer) are an endangered. These are crevice dwellers with nasty personalities (according to Carol). Townsend Big Eared Bats (Corynorhinus townsendii) are medium sized & very distinctive with their large ears. I saw a subspecies at SLL in February. Apparently during hibernation they wrap the ears so they look like rams’ horns. The Big Free Tailed Bats (Nyctinomops macrotis) are rare in central Oklahoma. They will adapt to humans and even seek out their company.
A couple of final interesting notes: pesticides can cause digit & facial deformities in bats; bats are more closely related to humans than they are rodents.
For more interesting bat info check out www.batcon.org.