Nature Done Wright

Incorporating the Celery Farm and Screech Owl Companion blogs

October 6, 2012

Helping a Bat Rescue in Allendale

Ed, one of the folks on Saturday's walk at the Celery Farm Natural Area, mentioned he had a bat roosting under his deck. He wasn't sure how well it was doing.

I stopped over to check and photograph it, and Ed and I found it motionless on the ground. Not good.

I gave the bat a little nudge to see if it was still alive — and it was. What were we to do?

I remembered an e-mail I had gotten from the Conserve Wildlife Foundation about a new bat rescue program, and sure enough, there was a link to an amazing website: http://njbats.org/

I e-mailed NJBats with the above photograph (what a beautiful furry bat!) and called NJBats as well. I talked to Jackie Kashmer, who runs the group, New Jersey Bat Sanctuary.

She said it was a Big Brown Bat, and it may or may not be sick.

Following her instructions, I put on a pair of gloves (very important), picked up the bat and placed it in on a piece
of cloth in a cardboard box (above) so it wouldn't be so out in the open and
vulnerable to predators.

I left the box under the elevated deck for one of her rescue squad folks to pick up. It was that simple.

When I checked later with Ed, he said the box was gone.

As it turned out, a volunteer had retrieved that bat and taken it to a biologist to be examined.

I later heard that they put the bat to sleep. "It definitely
was seriously injured or sick," was the report.

This story didn't have a happy ending, but we tried — as well we should.

Bat populations have fallen in recent years, and they need all the help they can get from humans. They provide all sorts of benefits to the environment, including pesticide-free insect control, yet they fly under most people's radar (or sonar) screens.

That's why I am so grateful to njbats.org and to the Conserve Wildlife Foundation for creating the Bat Rescue Squad and doing all they can to help and protect these amazing winged mammals.

As it so happens, CWF is having a fund-raiser on Oct. 11. The info is here.

Thanks, Ed, Conserve Wildlife Foundation, the Bat Rescue Squad volunteers, Jackie Kashmer and the New Jersey Bat Sanctuary!