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Bats plunge to ground in cold; saved by incubators, fluids | AP News

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  perrie-halpern  •  2 years ago  •  8 comments

By:   AP NEWS

Bats plunge to ground in cold; saved by incubators, fluids | AP News
Some 1,600 bats found a temporary home this week in the attic of a Houston Humane Society director, but it wasn't because they made it their roost. It was a temporary recovery space for the flying mammals after they lost their grip and plunged to the pavement after going into hypothermic shock during the city's recent cold snap .

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



Some 1,600 bats found a temporary home this week in the attic of a Houston Humane Society director, but it wasn't because they made it their roost.

It was a temporary recovery space for the flying mammals after they lost their grip and plunged to the pavement after going into hypothermic shock during the city's recent cold snap.

On Wednesday, over 1,500 will be released back to their habitats -- two Houston-area bridges -- after wildlife rescuers scooped them up and saved them by administering fluids and keeping them warm in incubators.

Mary Warwick, the wildlife director at the Houston Humane Society, said she was out doing holiday shopping when the freezing winds reminded her that she hadn't heard how the bats were doing in the unusually cold temperatures for the region. So she drove to the bridge where over 100 bats looked to be dead as they lay frozen on the ground.

But during her 40-minute drive home, Warwick said they began to come back to life, chirping and moving around in a box where she collected them and placed them on her heated passenger seat for warmth. She put the bats in incubators and returned to the bridge twice a day to collect more.

Two days later, she got a call about more than 900 bats rescued from a bridge in nearby Pearland, Texas. On the third and fourth day, more people showed up to rescue bats from the Waugh Bridge in Houston, and a coordinated transportation effort was set up to get the bats to Warwick.

See video of bats here: https://apnews.com/d915b2f25cb34bf18a87d943e39e612e


Warwick said each of the bats were warmed in an incubator until their body temperature rose and then hydrated through fluids administered to them under their skin.

After reaching out to other bat rehabilitators, Warwick said it was too many for any one person to feed and care for and the society's current facilities did not have the necessary space, so they put them in her attic where they were separated by colony in dog kennels and able to reach a state of hibernation that did not require them to eat.

"As soon as I wake up in the morning I wonder: 'How are they doing, I need to go see them,' " Warwick said.

Now, nearly 700 bats are scheduled to be set back in the wild Wednesday at the Waugh Bridge and about 850 at the bridge in Pearland as temperatures in the region are warming. She said over 100 bats died due to the cold, some because the fall itself — ranging 15-30 feet — from the bridges killed them; 56 are recovering at the Bat World sanctuary; and 20 will stay with Warwick a bit longer.

The humane society is now working to raise money for facility upgrades that would include a bat room, Warwick added. Next month, Warwick — the only person who rehabilitates bats in Houston — said the society's entire animal rehabilitation team will be vaccinated against rabies and trained in bat rehabilitation as they prepare to move into a larger facility with a dedicated bat room.

"That would really help in these situations where we continue to see these strange weather patterns come through," she said. "We could really use more space to rehabilitate the bats."

Houston reached unusually frigid temperatures last week as an Arctic blast pushed across much of the country. Blizzard conditions from that same storm system are blamed for more than 30 deaths in the Buffalo, New York-area.

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Follow AP coverage of weather at: https://apnews.com/hub/weather


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Ed-NavDoc
Professor Quiet
1  Ed-NavDoc    2 years ago

Aww bats! Sorry, I could not resist that. Glad to see the little critters got rescued and are doing better.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
2  Kavika     2 years ago

Damn, bats in the belfry...

On a more serious note, the bat population has been decimated in the past few years due to a disease. Bats are critical in the environment and these people did a really great thing. Kudo's to them.

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
3  Tessylo    2 years ago

Sounds like the iguanas in Florida when the temperatures drop

 
 
 
independent Liberal
Freshman Quiet
4  independent Liberal    2 years ago

I'd be keeping those, it makes for a great soup in the winter time.

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
4.1  Tessylo  replied to  independent Liberal @4    2 years ago

that's weird

 
 
 
Ed-NavDoc
Professor Quiet
4.2  Ed-NavDoc  replied to  independent Liberal @4    2 years ago

I remember eating iguana and monitor lizard during my jungle survival training at Subic Bay/Cubi Point in the Philippines.  Pretty tasty when you are hungry.

 
 
 
Ender
Professor Principal
5  Ender    2 years ago

Save the bats! They have great nightclubs...

 
 
 
Just Jim NC TttH
Professor Principal
5.1  Just Jim NC TttH  replied to  Ender @5    2 years ago

jrSmiley_10_smiley_image.gif jrSmiley_13_smiley_image.gif

 
 

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