A family of bats decided to set up house in my air-conditioner. I only discovered today that it was bats and not rats when the air-conditioner guy evicted them.
Unfortunantly there were some (not so) babies as well. I know of two hiding around my room.
There were 4 adults (well - they can fly properly), of which 2 were shown the door and they left. The air-conditioners outside holes were plugged and that was that.
I then heard more squeaks from the air-con. There are still 2 adults around - I tookthe front off for them to esacape and at dusk they left, but are still around - no doubt because of the babies.
So, who knows how to contact the bat conservation people in Taipei, at this time of night? I’d hate to see the babies all die just because mum and dad thought my aircon would be a “cool” house - pardon the pun
I’ll post some pics as soon as I get them off my camera.
Oh my goodness. That is strange. However did they get into your house?
Awesome photos though. Bats can carry rabies so I wonder if rabies is an airborne disease? Let me look that up for you. I don’t want to freak you out, but it’s best to be safe.
Here’s a website on bats and rabies by the US Center for Disease Control.
Thanks for trying to save and help the bats. Most people freak out completely when they see a bat and don’t realize what an important ecological function they serve.
I would advise you to contact someone at the zoo. They should have wildlife vets working there.
That is my option for tomorrow. However, the question is - can they survive till tomorrow? And, assuming they survive, who do I contact at the zoo?
As for how they got it in - there was a small gap between the air-con and the wall on the outside. That has now been blocked.
As I’m not one to kill needlessly, I removed the front panel so that the ones still inside could get out that way, and then be shown the door. I think there’s only one left in the aircon unit now… I will just have to watch tomorrow evening at dusk to see if any more emerge.
Rabies is not air-bourne - thank god! It’s transmitted by body fluids like saliva, so it would need to bite. I’ve been careful to not let any of them bite me. I also have a feeling that Taiwan is a rabies free island, though I’d not bet any money on that feeling though.
Can’t you put the babies outside and check (and hope!) that they’ll be “picked up” by their mom & dad? We once had a bat sitting on our pool’s chlorine container cruisin’ the pool in the morning, I helped it off with a shovel and put it in a nearby tree; it seemed greatly relieved to be able to hld on to something more substantial, I guess is climbed up and spent the night (day) to fly off at dusk and it hopefully joined its family again … maybe try the same?
EDIT: Taiwan claims to be rabies-free since 23 years or so, at least it doesn’t seem to be a thing you’d need to be majorly worried …
The two babies can only manage a short flight of a couple meters, if they have a high place to jump off from. At the moment they are hiding in a fold of my towel thats hanging over the back of a chair, and the 2 adults that are around have shown no interest in either (even when the one was clinging to the door frame)
If they survive the night, I will take them to the zoo in the morning. Hopefully there will be some-one who can speak english around… as my chinese is rather pitiful
If the young bats can only fly a few meters, there’s no point doing anything with them unless you know for sure where the mother is.
You need to feed them insects. mealworms are best, and best fed live, as they seem old enough if they can fly. Just offer them to the young bats with tweezers, or leave them in a bowl. Some goats milk would also be good for them (not any other milk - bats are lactose intolerant).
You need to put the young bats in a box where they can feel secure. They should be able to cling to the inside of a wooden box, or you can hang the towel inside something.
I used to monitor and rescue bats in England, and it’s a very rewarding experience, especially if you can feed these until they are big enough to fly. In England it’s illegal to do so unless you’re part of a recognised bat group (I was). Not sure what the rules are here, but those bats will need feeding ASAP. You won’t be able to feed it the number of insects it would consume in a night (hundreds), so mealworms and goat’s milk are best. Not sure where you can get those, though.
The little guys have just had their first meal: mealworm juice! I cut the heads off some mealworms and offered this delicious treat to the young duo. It took some determination on my part, but finally, after smearing their mouts with the liquid mealworm innards, they started to suck it up, and soon grabbed the worms themselves to clean them out.
They had about three whole mealworms each and then lost interest, so I’ll try feeding again in a couple of hours, then again in the morning. We’re lucky that they’re not too young, as that would have meant round-the-clock feeding.
These guys are tiny: the bosy of each is smaller than the last section of my thumb.
I’ll keep you informed of their progress. It’l be touch and go for a few days, though, as you never can tell if they will thrive or not. Fingers crossed!
As a member of an official Mealworm Monitoring & Rescue Group back home I have to lodge my strongest protest against this cruel and inhumane treatment of defenseless, innocent and kindhearted mealworms!!! I can not begin to understand how somebody who is dedicated to protecting and rescuing creatures in need can lower themselves to such abominable and condemnable actions with the cold heartlessness of an executioner or torturer!!! StrayDog, you have indeed strayed from your ideals, I am deeply, deeply dissappointed!
I know! It is ridiculous. Who’s to say which life form is more important? I face this moral dilemma every day when I feed my pets - I calculated that every year, 200 chickens, 150 fish, 50 ducks, 1 lamb, and 1 cow have to die to feed my three dogs and one cat. :s
When I used to have bats in England, I would occasionally free a handful of mealworms as a humane gesture. I would choose the ones that put up the best struggle, so as to help strengthen the mealworm gene pool so that they have a better chance of evolving into a species that could give as good as it gets. :loco:
OK, tonight I will free ten mealworms. I hope that appeases you, Xpet. You can name them if you want to!
I guess I could have just thrown the babies out the door and left them to starve, thus depriving us of one of the most effective bio-control agents of nocturnal insects (eg: mosquitos).
The other option was to feed the meal-worms still alive to the babies.
Your choice
(yes, I know it was tongue in cheek - but I’m rather tired of the bunny huggers making mountains out of mole-hills.)
That’s so cool! I used to catch a lot of daubenton bats fly-fishing for seatrout at night – they’d go for the fly on the back-cast or get tangled in the leader, and bite like buggery while you freed them. I never got any rabies shots, though, but I’m still alive.
Mythandore, you’re lucky you don’t live in the UK – my parents live in a very old house in the country and got bats in their belfry (actually the attic). They weren’t even allowed to block the holes where the bats got in and out.
As they live in an SSSI (site of special scientific interest), there are bat boxes all over their land and we used to get roped in every year to help tag the babies.
You’re lucky to get such a good look at them but you’d better set off a bug bomb once they’re finally gone – they’re usually crawling with fleas.
