Today during MakerSpace we were working behind the Little House when we saw some of our pre-school friends all crowded around something on the ground. Turns out they found a red bat (Lasiurus borealis) and he appeared to be injured. He was spreading his wings and hissing when we approached it. We moved the bat to a safe area (i.e. not on the playground) and then looked up "what do if you find a bat" while we continued working.
Based on what we learned from protocols on the Bat World Sanctuary website we needed to call a local wildlife rehabilitator.
We called and within an hour we had formed a plan to get the bat some help. The folks at Wildlife Rescue Center in Ballwin were willing to help as long as we could get the bat to them. I headed there after work and they were able to examine the bat. Turns out he checked out physically on the initial exam, but he was very shaky while walking around in the netted enclosure. They suspect it could be head trauma or there's something going on that they didn't see in the cursory examination. They are going to monitor the bat for the next few days and update me when they know more.
If they can rehabilitate the bat, the protocol for release is to take the animal back to where it was found. Their trained staff would handle all of that, but they did invite the kids to be a part of it... only problem is that bats are nocturnal so they would release him in the evening. The staff at the Wildlife Rescue Center were amazing and it was evident that they were really passionate about helping critters. Their mission is to rehabilitate injured, sick and orphaned native wildlife and release healthy animals to their natural habitat.
If you would like to support this program please consider donating here. I did! And stay tuned for another bat health update next week as I get more information.
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