Category: Uncategorized

SUMMER RESCUE NUMBERS
Summer is coming to a close and we are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. This has been a grueling orphan season with non-stop calls and rescues throughout the months of June and July. We rescued over 300 adult and orphaned bats over a two-month period, as well as assisting in dozens of rescues throughout the US. The video below is of the last three juvenile free-tailed bats being tested for flight before they were released. Bats must sustain flight for a full 10 minutes and be able to dip and swoop before they are deemed releasable.  One of the three bats in flight is Echo, who was going to be thrown into the trash before a Good Samaritan rescued her and brought her to us.

BAT WORLD FEATURED ON THE DODO
We were lucky to be featured on The Dodo,  a site with over 20 Million followers. Here is a video they created of our rescue work.

STATLER’S TREE-HOUSE
The Michigan 90 continue to thrive in their new home. Below is a video of 33 year-old Statler’s progress and the tree house we created for him thanks to your support.

GOING INTERNATIONAL
Bat World Sanctuary is now joining forces with ReWild to help save bats in South Africa. ReWild has changed their name to Bat World ReWild (BWRW) to represent this exciting new venture. South African bats are in dire need of help; together we will be able to save more bats and help BWRW play a much bigger role in bat conservation in South Africa. Please join Director Jane Burd at Bat World ReWild and stay tuned for updates.

GIVING DAY IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!
September 20, 2018 is North Texas Giving Day! This year we will be raising funds to help us with the lifetime care of the Michigan 90. Please mark your calendars and please consider a donation on September 20th.

This year we hope to raise $50,000, with a special treat in store for our supporters if we make that goal. More to come on Giving Day so please stay tuned!

Matching Challenge Grant Met!
We are so excited to announce that thanks to our wonderful supporters we met the generous $15,000 challenge grant with a month to spare! The funds were granted by a wonderful couple, Gladys Cofrin and Daniel Logan, and will be used for the lifetime care of The Michigan 90.
 
 

Update on the Michigan 90
This update is on Bella (in particular). She is an orphaned short-tailed fruit bat, one of the 90 rescued from the now-defunct OBC. Bella’s mother abandoned her (likely due to the stress of the transfer) so she was hand-raised until she was old enough to rejoin her mom and the rest of the colony. Click here to watch her story.

Fire Safety for the Sanctuary
We have been saving for a sprinkler system for the facility, but that plan became financially unfeasible after rescuing the Michigan 90. However, when one door closes, another opens! We received a generous donation from Lynn Hochstetter which allowed us to purchase Barricade Fire Gel, a system that is used during wildfires (our greatest danger). Now, instead of only protecting the main facility from fire, we will be able to protect our bat castle and our caretakers residence as well.

The last 10 days have been grueling. We spent every single day rescuing pregnant bats that continually became trapped in a specialty store located in an old building in downtown Mineral Wells, Texas. Last Thursday we finally convinced the building owner that a humane exclusion had to take place immediately -before babies were born- so mothers and babies alike would not become trapped. Thankfully 911 Wildlife came to the rescue and all the bats are now safe. All total we rescued 181 bats, most of them pregnant. All but two were released into our Bat Castle where they can come and go at will. The remaining two bats are healing from injuries sustained in the wall, but they will be able to go free soon. The video below shows part of one day’s rescue, that took place in the stifling hot bathroom of the specialty store.

During these past few weeks the Michigan 90 have been doing well. We are still raising the last pup (Bella, pictured below) who was born after arriving at Bat World. Her travel-stressed mother abandoned little Bella soon after giving birth so we are hand-raising her.  Just yesterday Bella progressed to eating semi-solid food (banana in warm goats milk) and her table manners went right out the window!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over a dozen of the Michigan 90 bats are elderly and will need special care, so we recently created a “GeriBatric Ward” to give comfort to these little elders during the final years of their lives. The enclosure is large enough to allow the occupants to have privacy when they need it as well as having multiple places to snuggle, roost and feed at their leisure. The floor is padded to prevent injuries in the event of a fall. The enclosure hangs inside the fruit bat’s area so they can also receive colony visitors at night.

On top of the rescues and additional care needed for the Michigan 90, orphan season just arrived and phone calls and babies are rolling in (check our rescue log here). Throughout all this, we are still trying to raise the funds needed to match the wonderful $15,000 grant offer that came in last month to support the Michigan 90. We only have until August to raise the funds and with the additional rescue work taking most of our time we are growing a bit worried.  So far we have aquired just over $2,000 towards the matching grant. Anything you can do to help us secure this incredible offer will be appreciated more than you may realize. Please click here to donate. Alternately, you can donate through the Sunshine Rescue Club or even through this link (paypal is accepted).

Please remember, with baby season upon us, you may come across a grounded bat. Please click here for immediate help or email us at [email protected]

The past three weeks have perhaps been among the most trying we have ever encountered.

It started with the rescue of 90 fruit bats from the Organization for Bat Conservation (OBC) after it suddenly closed due to allegations of sexual harassment against the former Director, who allegedly left the organization “profoundly insolvent”.  For two decades we had watched the sad conditions of the bats being “used” in countless programs across the U.S., so we jumped at the chance to offer these bats lifetime sanctuary.

Many of the bats were on loan from zoos and other institutions so those bats had to be returned to those facilities. The bats that remained, however, included 90 bats, some of which were old and infirmed and with other various issues that made them unappealing to zoos and like-minded facilities, where appearance matters. The bats we rescued included 50 short-tailed fruit bats, 10 Egyptian fruit bats, 12 African fruit bats, 15 Jamaican fruit bats, 2 Indian flying foxes and 1 Rodrigues fruit bat.

Taking on 90 additional mouths to feed is a daunting task but thanks to you—our wonderful supporters who helped us build a new, larger sanctuary—we have the room to accommodate these poor, unwanted souls. When the bats arrived we were both joyous and saddened at the same time. We were joyous to give these bats a new lease on life with all the enrichment they deserve, but sad to see how emotionally and physically neglected some of them appeared to be, and that many of the smaller bats were thin and balding.  Three of the elderly bats had nails that were so long they had to be physically cut out of the mesh crate in which they arrived.

In the midst of all of the happiness at having the bats safely with us,  we lost one of our own, David Naranjo, who was tragically killed in a car accident. David was our “shining star” and so looked forward to giving the 90 new arrivals the life they should have always had. The loss of David hit us all very hard and in the most profound way imaginable. David was born to be a part of Bat World and in that sense irreplaceable. We have a wonderfully dedicated Bat World family consisting of staff and volunteers who have pitched in to help until we can eventually get someone else trained.

The “Michigan 90” are adjusting to their new lives. Some individuals are being rehabilitated, including “Coco” a critically endangered Rodrigues fruit bat who was born in 1997 and loaned to the former director of OBC, along with another of her same species. In 2012, it was determined that Coco was going blind so she and her roost mate were moved to a small cage. Her roost mate died at some point but Coco remained confined to the small cage alone because, under the instructions of the former OBC director (and with no reflection on the OBC staff or the Board), it was believed that Coco would “freak out” if she was with other bats. On the alleged instruction of the former director, her claws were purposely allowed to grow so they curled 270 degrees (3/4 of a circle) making it so she could barely move around.  Because of the severe, curled length of her toenails, Coco could not unlatch her toes from the cage ceiling to turn right-side up to relieve herself, so she unwillingly soiled herself (behavior we are working to correct).

Along with other allegations of abuse and neglect, we later learned from a former staff member that Coco was allegedly kept in a broom closet for two years before finally being transferred to a different cage.  The former staff member reported that she would leave the door of the closet open while she was there so Coco could receive fresh air:

Bats are exceptionally clean by nature but in order to maintain themselves they must be able to ambulate. We trimmed all of the bat’s toenails that were overgrown and are in the process of rehabilitating their behavior as well as their feet and nails. Three bats (including Coco) were so accustomed to not being able to move about once they were placed in a certain location, they just hung in the exact same spot for hours on end. We are now helping them to understand that they are able to move freely on their own within our expansive enclosure.  We do this by gently helping them move their feet and guiding them across the enclosure ceiling while supporting their backs with one hand (as seen in our Live Bat Cams video footage, below).

We were promised that none of the bats were pregnant, however, several of the smaller short-tailed fruit bats were indeed pregnant on arrival. These tiny future mothers were placed into an enriched flight area, segregated from the rest of the colony, to await the birth of their babies.  Two of the females gave birth to girls within days of arriving so they were allowed to rejoin their colony in the large flight area with their offspring.

The other mothers who gave birth to boys will stay with their youngsters until the boys are old enough to neuter in approximately 3 months. They will then be allowed to rejoin their colony.  One mother abandoned her baby, likely due to the stress of the transfer, so we are hand-raising her baby until she is old enough to rejoin her mom and the rest of the colony.

Most of the Michigan 90 have a lifespan of 25 years or more. In order to return to normalcy, some of these bats have months of rehabilitation ahead. Your donations help us to accomplish all that we do for these bats and more, but by taking in 90 extra bats we have essentially reached critical mass. We have the room and the staff-power to care for them, however, we need to ensure that we have the funds available for the lifetime care of these neglected and abused bats so they never have to suffer again. We can only do this with your support.

We are trying to raise $250,000, a lofty goal and one that we expect will take some time, but also one that will ensure that these innocent bats will never suffer again. With Bat World Sanctuary, they will receive ample food, veterinary aid, and loving care from a staff dedicated to ensuring their every creature comfort.

You helped build the safe sanctuary they now call home; please help us give the once abused and neglected bats lifetime care.

On behalf of the 90 beautiful souls who will now have lifetime peace and happiness, thank you for your support.

Our Hearts Are Broken……

We lost our shining star, David Naranjo, March 29, 2018 in a tragic car accident. It is impossible to express the pain we feel over the loss of David. He truly loved the bats and Bat World Sanctuary, and he lived at the facility.  Please know that the person whose words you read on some of our recent Facebook posts are those of David, whose likes and shares surpassed our own.

Although David was only with us for 6 months, little by little, that undeniable light that he had shining from within grew with each passing day; a light that touched the soul of those who knew him.  David’s tenderness with the animals that gravitated towards him was tangible; his expressive face would beam at the opportunity to gain more knowledge about the bats, and they thrived in his care as he embraced them for all that they are.

David was 6’9” tall and we use to laugh together at how his extraordinary height made him even more perfect for the job because he could reach any bat without a ladder. David physically towered over others but most of all he soared to heights of humanity that most of us can only dream of attaining.  Many young people these days seem to only talk-the-talk, but David walked-the-walk without speaking a word. He was brilliant, yet he was humble; he was gentle, but so very strong; he was dedicated, kind and talented. In the short time we were privileged to know him, we feel that we had barely scratched the surface of the greatness he possessed.

David ~ We can still hear your laughter and feel your presence.  We miss you so much dear, sweet David.  May you always travel on the wings of the bats that you loved so much.

In Memory of Fran Buraczynski.   ~Marion Buraczynski

In Memory of Wrigley and Jake.  ~Lynn Sutherland

In Memory of my Princess.  ~Leslie Wallace

In Memory of the little bat I found in a parking garage but died before I could get it to rescue. RIP little guy.   ~Amy  Wheeler

In Memory of my grandfather.   ~Gina Carreon

In Memory of my Indy.   ~Janice Gosselin

In memory of my beloved Zelda.  ~Courtney WirtJanel

In Memory of Herkel.   ~ John Hyatt

 In Memory of Jerry.   ~Jocelyn  Joy 

In Memory of Eleanor J. MacDonald, a pioneer in her field and one of my earliest mentors.   ~Noel Lampazzi

In Memory of Maggie.   ~Claire  Todd  

In Memory of Tom Taylor in New Zealand.   ~Wendy  Gardiner  

In Memory of  Sugar and and Teddy Rocco.  ~Melissa  Rocco  

In Loving Memory of Kimb Miller.   ~Barbara  Ray  

In Memory of Shirley Case.   ~Margaret  Case  

In Memory of Holly-berry, the sweetest free-tail of them all!   ~Shari  Blissett-Clark  

In Memory of Barbara Dahm.  ~Lisa  Dahm 

In Memory of Maximus Galvin, a rat who went from neglected and scared to all-time-best snugglebutt.   ~Maggie A  Galvin 

In Memory of Poppertop.   ~Jean  Thompson  

In Loving Memory of Gladys Kenemer Siao    ~Barbara Merry Geng

In Memory of Kadji and Thor.   ~Rainsong Grant  

In Memory of Fiona.   ~Susan Dustin  

In memory of my dear, sweet Lily.   ~Rachael Polachek  

In Memory of Jim Oviedo.   ~Michelle Oviedo 

In Memory of Marcile Jordan and James Ramsey.   ~Diana  Ramsey  

Memory of KelseyGirl.   ~Patricia Rankin  

In Memory of Silver, my Sweetheart Girl.   ~Sheila Neidhardt  

In Memory of Wylie and Squeak.   ~Susan Pollich  

In Loving Memory of my father, Charles F. Sweiger.   ~Karen  Sweiger-Veil  

In Memory of Bianca.   ~Morgan Fechtel  

In Memory of Donna Fellner.   ~Diane Scott  

In Memory of Cosmo.   ~Celeste Nelson  

In Memory of doggies Mama Kira, Galen, and Loki.   ~Ellen C  Cawthorne  

In Memory of Nick Dahm.   ~Lisa Dahm  

In Memory of Katie & RJ.   ~Lisa Gates 

In Memory of dad, Rabbi Aaron Gottesman.   ~Judith Gottesman  

In Memory of Michele Gagnon-Burgess.   ~Charise Mixa 

In Memory of my wonderful dog, Quincy.   ~Mary Lou Force  

In Memory of Paul and Jan.   ~Paula Lee Dowidchuk  

In Memory of Weegems.   ~Dorothy Sherman  

In Memory of Julie Fitzpatrick.    ~Jodi Fitzpatrick 

In Loving Memory of my doggie Maizie who passed last week.   ~Laci-Ann Mosher

In Memory of Oberon, our little O-bat!    ~Teri Lanza

In Memory of my father who helped me rescue many wild animals.   ~Pamela  Keeley-Gassmann

In Memory of little Iggy.   ~  Greta Dubbeld

In Memory of Kavy Bianco.   ~ Ishel Bianco

In Memory of Charles J. Poynter.   ~ Linda Poynter

In Memory of Jack Ciliberti.   ~Molly Ciliberti

In Memory of Poppertop.  ~Jean Thompson                

In Memory of Mina, Sadie, Molly, Ebby and Patches.   ~Marilyn  Gruenloh

In Memory of Gabe Cox.   ~Genevieve  Cerf

In Memory of my brother, Jerry.   ~Karen J  Lazar

In Memory of Sunshine!    ~Susie  Mays

 

 

At first he did not look like a vision of Beauty but that was because he had been through so much.

Benger was found in July of 2017 as an orphan. He was almost two miles from the nearest nursery colony. He was about four weeks old and too large to have been carried by another bat in flight, so we have no idea how he got to the porch of the lady who called us. In order to get where he was found he traveled through feral cats, raccoons and skunks, fire ants, traffic and burning hot pavement. He finally ended up on a porch where he was spotted, and we were called right away.

For the first few days we honestly didn’t think Benger would survive. He was critically dehydrated, so much so that it took 5mls of fluids –more than the amount of blood contained in his tiny body- to get him up to speed.

He was also skin and bones and vomited at almost every meal, losing all the formula and precious calories his body so desperately needed. Then burns started appearing on his toes and tail membrane, likely from the scalding hot pavement he traveled across. He lost his tail to burns and eventually lost on of his thumbs and a few of his toes.

It took Benger two months to completely heal. Throughout it all, he was such a hero. Despite the pain he endured, he never lost the will to survive. He isn’t releasable because of his injuries so we will take care of him the rest of his life (15 to 20 years).

His name is a combination of Roger (don’t ask) and Benjamin Button, because he looked like a shriveled old man when he arrived. We tacked on “Avenger” because to us he is nothing short of a tiny superhero.

To celebrate his survival, Bat World volunteer Moriah Champagne made Benger a tiny cape. His cape hangs on display beside the staff lockers at Bat World Sanctuary.

During the summer months, hundreds of Brazilian free-tailed bat moms set up nursery colonies in the attics of vacant buildings in a dilapidated part of a nearby town. Occasionally, a baby bat will become orphaned from the mother not returning to the roost for various reasons including being injured in a storm or becoming the victim of a predator such as an owl, hawk or human. Orphaned bats go in search of mom and often end up grounded on the outside of the buildings, so Bat World volunteers walk the area early every summer morning to look for pups that can be saved.

An orphaned animal is at the greatest disadvantage because it has lost his or her natural mother, and a mother’s milk is very special, just as the baby to whom it gives life. Bat World Sanctuary worked for over two years with a nutritional scientist to developed a milk formula recipe that replaces free-tailed bat mother’s milk.

Free-tailed orphans are not physically able to lap milk, their tiny faces are only designed to nurse. There is no nurser small enough to accommodate their tiny mouths, so we use foam tips made from eye-shadow applicators. The foam is removed from the wand and cut into a shape that the pup will accept. Warm milk formula is dispensed, a drop at a time, onto the tip as the pup nurses. Because free-tailed pups enjoy nursing in this fashion so much, it allows us to form “assembly lines” and feed several bat pups at once.

Free-tailed bats are highly intelligent, using over 25 vocalizations to communicate. The orphans are very smart at birth and quickly realize that they are being helped. They vocalize using soft chittering and squeaks to communicate while they snuggle and play with one another.

Aside from food, we provide the love and attention their mother’s would have showered on them.  Unlike other animals, bats do not imprint so we can and do become their substitute mothers.  We nurture them and raise them.  We give them flight training and teach them to forage and when they are ready they are released back to the wild.  If an orphan is born with an abnormality or a medical condition that prevents them from being released, we give them lifetime sanctuary, where they live in a simulated cave with others of their kind. The cave sits inside a large flight enclosure which enables bats with limited flight to enjoy themselves on a nightly basis.

We are able to provide all they need  because we do not do it alone.  Our supporters give us the means to save the orphans—their formula, their toys, bedding and the very incubators that are initially used keep them alive.  We could not save these tiny, important lives without your support, thank you for allowing us to save them.

On Monday, August 28th, 2017, we received word that bats were being affected by rising flood waters created in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas. We immediately reached out to offer our support to several good Samaritans who were already saving bats. However, by Monday evening it became apparent that we needed to head to Houston asap to rescue as many bats as possible.

The bats roosting under bridges were particularly affected as the wind was too strong to allow them to leave their roosts and the water rose too quickly to enable escape. Bats need a drop-off to take flight, and the drop off itself proved deadly as many bats ended up in the rising waters. Those that could take flight became sopping wet from the torrential rains. A small percentage took refuge in nearby parking garages and entrances to office buildings where they remain today, wet, without food, water or a way to escape.

After arriving hours after midnight on Tuesday, Bat World’s Bat Care Specialist Erica Quinzel began rescuing bats before dawn on Wednesday morning. By noon she had already found approximately 200 bats that needed help so she created a makeshift care center in her truck and worked from a parking garage. Thankfully, over half of the 200 bats recuperated after receiving critical fluids (injections of electrolytes) and emergency food (hydrolyzed protein) that allowed almost immediate recovery and the energy needed to take flight.

70 bats needed critical care and were kept overnight. The photo below shows some of these tiny, exhausted beings resting and recovering from their ordeal.

On a bright note, after the water receded from under the Waugh Bridge on Tuesday, chirping could be heard from within the bat roost and thousands of surviving bats were spotted flying out that evening to hunt for insects. The bats that Erica saved were released back to their original colony last night just as their surviving roost mates were emerging.

Sadly, 22 of the bats in the most critical condition did not survive the night. However, most of the remaining bats have responded well to treatment and will be released tonight with only two staying behind due to their injuries.

Word spread about our rescue efforts and we began receiving dozens of calls from the Houston area about displaced bats as well as individuals finding bats on their porches, in their yards and other places. This information was passed on to our rescue team in Houston as it came in.

A huge thank you to everyone who sent donations to help. Your thoughtfulness and compassionate support is appreciated more than you may know.