Getting Our First Bats

After moving to Milwaukee and getting settled in here, I reconnected with the Madison bat rehabbers. The rehabber they worked with previously in Milwaukee, had recently moved to Minnesota. Soon I was also volunteering in the Wisconsin Humane Society's wildlife rehab facility and eventually started caring for some non-releaseable bats at home.

All the things I was working toward were falling into place. I always name the bats I receive and the first non-releasable, educational bats were Vleer and Vesper. Soon after I picked up Vicious, appropriately named, at that time. After several years, and complete healing from his near fatal compound wing fracture, he's one of the sweetest bats in my care.

The agreement is that I care for non-releasable male bats and the Madison rehabbers keep the females, which prevents unplanned baby bats. Since Big Brown bats can live up to 30 years in captivity, there would be the potential for one pup a year from the females, if they were not segregated based on gender. The most common bats in Wisconsin are the Big Browns, followed by Little Browns. In addition to those we have these other bats: Hoary, Red, Silver Hair, Eastern Pipistrelle, and the Northern Long Ear.

Even though I had been through an intensive course, as with everything, there was a learning curve. I am still learning about the bats to this day, and every night when I feed them, medicated the ones in need, and clean their housing, I remember why I do it; to help all that I can, realizing that I can't save every one, but their chances are much better with me, and others like me, trying to help them one by one.