Lorna at Vicenza

It's true, a baby bat.

I wanted some info on what to do so I posted a thread on the forum where I knew people would still be awake. Photos included.

Read about it here :

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=675815

BEVS

I would love that. We had bat boxes on the side of our house back in the UK but never attracted any bats. I was told it was because we had little to no pine trees around us.

I've posted this on the other thread but will put it here too.

Don't handle the bat without gloves. If you think it's injured then put into a cool dry dark box overnight. If you feel it has just missed it's way due to having chased a particularly juicy mozzy, then either leave it to find it's own way out again - the way it came in - or place him/her on a window ledge .

If it is small it may be a pipistrelle and they are a protected species.

Lorna at Vicenza

Darling I haven't touched it believe me -apart from a gentle nudge with the end of a wooden spoon to see if it was alive or not and would fly out. It didn't. It just skittered across the floor - quite quickly actually.

Lorna at Vicenza

After quite a long discussion and a few people jokingly trying to put the sh&ts up me ---- the outcome was :

Right - I have scooped the bat (baby or not) from its corner in the utility room using the egg slice utensil (will also be burned tomorrow) and I gently laid the bat on the kitchen windowsill. I did after all, find it on the kitchen floor. I have closed the inside windows and I hope it will be gone when I get up.

I also hope I don't find it dead as a dodo underneath the kitchen window or ripped to shards by Satan's cats (yes I do read lots of threads).

I hope it did indeed find its way home - but God knows where that is - there are no caves or anything near my house.

BEVS

I also hope it lives to tell the tale.

It's kith and kith probably have a favourite tree or two to roost in. From memory I think they like pines and to be near a water source.

TestaRossa

If it's still there the forestale or statale will come and take him away. I had a baby bird in my garden and they turned up with the rspcb equivalent. So ring them if he's still there and alive! I had a bat nursery in my UK loft - british nature came to visit they were so rare, a breed I've never heard of. Only the BN chap was licensed to handle them but he let Alex hold one with his supervision!

indiebird

Do come and tell us the outcome Lorna.... have you noticed that all these things happen whilst the menfolk are away?????!!!

LivingHere

Are you sure that there isn't a mummy bat somewhere?

TestaRossa

It looked fully grown to me tbh...

BEVS

OMG I so wanted similar. How totally brilliant.

TestaRossa

This was when he was about 9 - he's sat next to me now waiting to see the pics, so I better get a move on!! If you ever get back to the UK the National Trust does Bat watch evenings in some of their gardens in the summer - brilliant!! Especially when you see the huge ones flying over the ponds for insects!!! I have a garden full of pipistrels here too, as the swallows go to sleep the bats appear!

duffer

I think it was a deformed rat. I'm sure the cats appreciated your gesture of goodwill though. Breakfast has been served...

BTW There are bats everywhere here, you see them flapping about at night, I honestly think people assume they are birds otherwise they'd go berserk!

Lorna at Vicenza

Well it's not on the windowsill anymore.

I hope it found its way home. I'm not going out and poking about in the long grasses underneath the window though.

A part of me feels like last night was all a dream.

TR - good idea about the forestale. I never thought of them. Not sure they would have appreciated a call after midnight but if I ever get another one inside, I'll keep it until they can get here.

Lorna at Vicenza

Went round the market and then to the bar. Told the barman and his wife about 'my' bat.

The barman said they are awful and he would have squished it as soon as look at it. They couldn't believe that they are a protected species back home and told me that they certainly aren't here.

TestaRossa

I thought my baby bird was a bird of prey, it was a very large swallow, they said!!! But they were more than happy to take it away, very jolly in fact!!