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About 1,600 bats found temporary homes in the attic of a Houston Humane Society director this week, but not because they roosted. It was a temporary recovery space after a flying mammal lost its grip and dived onto the pavement after falling into hypothermic shock during the city’s recent cold snap.
On Wednesday, hundreds were released to their habitat on two bridges in the Houston area after wildlife rescuers rescued them by scooping them up, dosing them with liquids and keeping them warm in incubators. rice field.
The Houston Humane Society tweeted a video of the bats, saying, “Poor babies were rescued from the ground last week when they nearly froze to death.”
Mary Warwick, director of the Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Coalition, was doing holiday shopping when a freezing wind blew and asked how bats were doing in unusually cold temperatures for the area. He said he remembered that he had not. So she drove to a bridge where she found over 100 bats frozen to the ground and dead.
But during the 40-minute drive home, they began to come to life, squealing and moving around in the box, Warwick said. She put the bats in an incubator and she returned to the bridge twice a day to collect the bats.
Two days later, I got a call about more than 900 bats being rescued from a bridge near Purland, Texas. On the third and his fourth day, more people showed up to rescue the bats from Houston’s War Bridge, and a coordinated transport effort was set up to bring the bats to Warwick.
Warwick said each bat was heated in an incubator until it warmed up, and a liquid was administered under the skin to keep it hydrated.
After reaching out to other bat rehabilitators, Warwick decided to keep the bats away because they were too numerous for one person to feed and care for, and the society’s current facilities didn’t have the space they needed. Placed in her attic and said it was divided by a dog colony. It was a kennel and could reach hibernation without needing to eat.
“As soon as I wake up in the morning I think, ‘How are they doing, I have to go see them,'” Warwick said.
CBS affiliate KHOU-TV said about 700 bats were released to the wild at Waugh Bridge and about 850 at Pearland Bridge on Wednesday as temperatures in the area are rising. reported. She said more than 100 bats died because of the cold. 56 are recovering at Batworld Sanctuary. And 20 will stay in Warwick a little longer.
Warwick told KHOU-TV that bats use the War Bridge as a tourist attraction, so along with other beneficial reasons, it is our duty to look after them if they get into trouble.
“They eat mosquitoes when they first come out of the colony,” said Warwick. “As they get taller, they eat many moths and insects that affect food crops.
The Humane Society is now working to raise money for facility upgrades, including the bat room, Warwick added. He said the entire association’s animal rehabilitation team will be vaccinated against rabies and trained in bat rehabilitation as they prepare to move to larger facilities with dedicated bat rooms.
“This would really help in these situations where we continue to have these strange weather patterns,” she said. “We could have used more space to rehabilitate the bats.” .”
Houston reached unusually cold temperatures last week as an arctic blast swept through much of the country. Blizzard conditions from that same storm system have been blamed for her more than 30 deaths in the Buffalo, New York area.
