For the past week, I’ve been hearing tiny chirps coming from the highest beams in the barn at all hours of the day. Since the adult bats remain relatively quiet during the day, I know these chirps are coming from the newest editions to the family.
Unexpectedly this morning, I opened the back doors of the barn to find a number of baby bats strewn about on the ramp. I gasped in horror to see so many (actually only 9 of them) in this one area. The location was directly under the hole in the peak of the roof where the bats exit from. A few were obviously deceased, but 3 living ones were clinging very tightly to a wood floor plank.
I was not sure what to do. I called the Ludlow Animal Rescue and got their answering service. I then began reading through forums and blogs to get answers. Most chatter about the subject was from the ‘save the humans’ point of view, so advice I found was mostly stating, “don’t touch them, they have rabies.”, “kill them and put them out of their misery.” “If a child or sleeping adult was in the room, get them tested immediately for rabies.”
None of the advice I found was very helpful. I decided to carefully move them up to the top plank of the barn so they would be within 15 ft of the rest of the bats. I figured this would be the only way their mothers would hear their cries.
After talking to a bunch of people, the overall thought was that this was “nature taking it’s course.” Most mother bats only have 1 to 2 pups (baby bats) each year. Perhaps some mothers were to weak to care for their young, perhaps if they have 2 they choose 1 and discard the other, or perhaps the pups just fell from their nest. Either way, I still hear plenty of little chirps, so I’m confident the bat population will live on.
If anybody has any expertise or experience in this area, please share your thoughts.
