Bob the Baby Bat

(more photos at the bottom!  click on thumbnails to view full-size images, use the "back" button on your browser to return to this page, feel free to use any photos but please credit to Kirsty Farnfield 2002, thanks.)

Wednesday 26th June 2002...

...and we're planning a barbeque and bat count.  In case of rain (hey, this ~is~ England!) we decided to get the slide projector down from the loft so we can show some bat slides indoors if need be.  It was lucky for Bob the Baby Bat that we did, or he'd now be a fuzzy little corpse.  We opened the loft hatch and SPLAT, what looked like a tiny dead bat fell to the floor. 

I thought it was dead until I saw him furl his little wings in and breathe.  I scooped him up gently in my hands and saw how TINY he was - little more than 2  1/2 centimetres long, mostly bald, wrinkly and with eyes barely open. (compare him to my thumb in the photo below!)

I immediately tried calling round members of Durham Bat Group to try and find someone to help, as I have never dealt with a baby bat before and had no idea what I could feed him.  I gave him some plain water from the end of a pipette (dropper) which he lapped up once he got the idea - he was pretty thirsty, but I didn't want to give him cows milk as I know that it is very rarely suitable for anything other than calves and humans.  When he opened his mouth to squeak or lap some water it was clear he didn't even have any teeth yet.

Anyway, what is it with orphans and me this year?  Bob is the second orphan to sneak into my life in as many months!  The first one, considerably larger than Bob is "Bishop", aka "Bish" a coloured cob foal who became separated from his mother at a week old in May - we had to bottle feed him every 2 hours for a week until we found a foster mare to take him.  Bish's web page is situated at: www.ukshires.net/bishop.htm (link opens in a new window so you don't loose this page)

Anyway, after a frantic hour or more of phone calls I finally caught up with Noel Jackson of Durham Bats again, who was unfortunately busy, but who instructed me to get some goats milk or kitten milk formula to feed Bob.  (thanks also to Liz Dunn who kindly offered to get some kitten milk for me from her vets, glad I didn't need it!)  Bob, it turned out, would also need feeding every two hours (although he'd be a lot easier having a few drops from a pipette and staying at my house, rather than Bishop, who had two whole lamb bottles a feed, and was living about 10 minutes drive away at the farm)

Anyway, back to Bob.  I took him with me down to the vets at Bishop Auckland both to get them to check him over and get some kitten milk.  The veterinary nurses all popped in to coo over him about how tiny he was, never having seen such a miniscule bat before.  Luckily one of the nurses at the vets, Helen, used to work for a wildlife sanctuary and has dealt with bats, so although she wasn't at work when I popped in, the surgery called her and she drove into work on her day off to take a look at Bob, and VERY kindly offered to hand-rear him (as I am going away in a few days, and couldn't have taken Bob with me)

(Bob scoots up my arm!)

Whilst in the vets, Bob woke up considerably (sitting on warm hands had evidently warmed up his muscles and got him moving)  He started scurrying about at a rate of knots, scrambling all over my hands, and up my arm while I tried to take a photo of him (above)  Maybe I should have called him speedy Gonzales!

Hopefully if all goes well and he survives on the milk, I'll get to see him again on Saturday as Helen is going to try and make it to the bat count and barbeque on Saturday, and will be bringing Bob along with her so he doesn't miss out on any feeds.  He is an incredibly lucky little bat to have been found in time before he died of starvation or dehydration.

Anyway, to view more information on our bat roost, go to www.equisite.net/bats.  You can also get more information on bats at the Durham Bat Group website at www.durhambats.org.uk

And the following photos show what Bob should look like when he grows up - here are some bats from the same roost: