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Information about Bats & Skunks that you might now know.

Bats

 

Now that it is spring/summer, we are seeing more bats in East Texas.  Some of the species that migrated south to spend the winter in warmer climates have returned to our area.  In addition, the major maternity season for bats in the US and Canada is from April through August.

 

The bat maternity season is significant for two reasons:

 

1.      Since the young bats, called “pups,” may not be too adept at flying, some of them end up on the ground in their early efforts at flying.  In all probability, they are not ill; they just don’t have their flight skills perfected yet. 

 

2.     Also, sometimes the mother bat actually carries the young with her as she flies.  However, because of the extra weight she is carrying in the form of the pups, she may occasionally make a crash landing and rest awhile.

Though either of these “maternity” scenarios can result in a healthy bat’s being “grounded” or “downed,” we cannot be completely sure that any bat within reach of a human or a pet is not ill.  Therefore, it is important to educate your citizens/clients about the need to avoid physical contact with any bat. 

 

If a bat comes into physical contact with a person, either by flying into the person, landing on the person, or by being picked up or handled by the person, the person should try to capture the bat without further skin contact, so it can be tested for rabies. If available, an adult should carry out the capture. Contact animal control or a veterinarian to have the bat tested.  There may be a cost to the person wanting the bat tested; however, it is certainly worth the money, if the bat has had contact with a person or a pet.  If the bat is not available for testing, the person should speak with a physician or health department to assess the exposure.

 

If a person finds a “downed” bat or a bat in a building, and there has been NO human or pet exposure, and an adult is available and willing to do so, capture the bat and release it outside in an area distant from people.  

Caution:  A bat may look dead, but “come to life” when disturbed.  Therefore, use precautions when picking up any bat.

Do NOT touch the bat with bare hands.  Wear gloves and simply cover the bat with a small box or empty coffee can and slide a stiff piece of cardboard underneath so the bat is trapped inside the box or can. It is best not to release bats outside during the day unless the bat can be placed in a very protected area of a tree out of the direct sun.  The bat moms are already exhausted and dehydrated and need to rest.  If it is possible to do so without endangering the person, giving the mother bat a few drops of water with an eyedropper will help her.  However, a person should not attempt to give water to the bat unless he/she is able to do so without danger to the person.

Some bats need to be above the ground to take flight, so moving the bat to a tree will help the bat be on its way.  While still wearing your gloves, you can remove the cover and place the box on its side in a tree.  The bat may immediately fly or crawl out of the box onto the branches, or it may not fly away until dark.   

For an excellent video on catching and removing a bat in a building, see this site:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzax0V0DG_M&feature=player_embedded#! 

The lady who demonstrates in the video is a bat expert and is vaccinated against rabies.  She is not wearing the gloves and shoes that you will want to wear when capturing a bat.

If the bat appears to be injured, you can contact animal control for help in disposing of the bat.  If you would like to try to have the bat rehabilitated, you can look for a bat rehabilitator on the Bat World web site:  http://www.batworld.org/local_rescue/maplists/map.tx.list.html

The other point associated with the bat maternity season concerns excluding or evicting bats from a building attic or other roost in which the bats have taken up residence. Now is not an ideal time to do exclusion because the young are not yet able to fly.  If you do an exclusion (bat eviction) now, the adults will be able to get out, but the young will not.  The pups will be trapped inside. Bat exclusion is best carried out in early spring (before maternity season) or in the fall (after August) when the young bats are able to fly well.  If you want to learn  how to evict bats from a building in which they are roosting, look at the info on this site:  http://www.batcon.org/index.php/bats-a-people/bats-in-buildings/subcategory/69.html

Even during the maternity season, if a building has bats in its walls or attic, we do not want them to get lost and come into the parts of the building that people use.  Therefore, any openings (they may be very tiny) that connect areas in a building where bats roost with interior living or working quarters should be sealed shut so that bats cannot enter those sections.  Then when young are able to fly, the entire colony can be evicted and the building bat–proofed to prevent bats from returning.

  

One other reminder:  Bats like to swoop down and grab a drink from standing water, such as a farm pond or swimming pool.  They are not attacking people in or around the pond or pool.  They are just looking for a drink.  If a bat’s sonar navigation is “off” because it is ill, the bat could end up crashing into the pool.  A homeowner sometimes finds a dead bat floating in the pool or in the pool’s “skimmer.”  In either case, the possibility of a dead bat in the pool presenting a health risk to people who might swim in the pool is remote.  There are several reasons for the low risk:

 

1.      The rabies virus does not live well outside the animal. Therefore, if a dead bat floating in a pool had rabies, the virus would not live very long after the bat died.

2.      The dilution factor of a small amount of virus in the large volume of water in the pool would reduce any risk.

3.      The relatively high concentration of chlorine in the pool water would inactivate the virus.

 

This information was provided by DSHS from a Regional Veterinarian out in Tyler, Texas.  If you have additional questions, please email us.

 

Skunks

From a continuing series on revolting creatures.

By Constance Casey Posted Monday, Oct. 12, 2009, at 11:23 AM ET

A mother skunk trailed by six little striped kits is a sight at least as charming as ducklings following their mother. Skunks themselves are not revolting. It's the pungent, oily, yellow-green liquid that streams out of nozzles on either side of a skunk's anus that is revolting. Lovable though the creatures are, there will never be a children's book called Make Way for Skunks.

Skunk.

It is the skunk's confidence in that potent defensive weapon that makes its personality appealing. The critters, the size of a small cat but with a wider rump and a bit of a waddle, are the opposite of aggressive. Most of the time they're curious, playful, fearless, and calm (though in late winter, mating season, the males go haywire). A devil-may-care attitude does not serve them well on the highway. The poor creatures stick their tails straight up as a warning to a car. It doesn't work; most of us know the smell of skunk musk from road kill.

Fatal encounters with cars aside, skunks enjoy living near human beings. They're comfortable making a den under a porch or in a garage. (Some musk can leak into their feces, making them less than perfect neighbors.) Omnivorous, they treat our garbage bags like piñatas. They eat vegetables, berries, nuts, mushrooms, lizards, snakes, baby turtles and turtle eggs, birds, moles, worms—practically anything. That "anything" includes bees munched off the side of a hive and jalapeño peppers. To the benefit of the farmer and gardener, they eat mouse and rat nestlings, snails, cockroaches, and beetle grubs. On the negative side, they sometimes eat chicks and eggs.

As skunks cozy up to us, the reassuring news is that they are extremely reluctant to go nuclear. The typical skunk reacts only to truly threatening behavior. Are some skunks more trigger-happy than others? It seems logical that there's a cost to spraying—that it takes some time to recharge, when the animal would be vulnerable—but it turns out the scent glands refill quickly.

Before firing, a skunk will perform a complex warning dance, first backing away from a predator, tail raised as a warning flag, then stomping its front feet. The spotted skunk, smaller than the more common striped skunk, does a handstand that is, disregarding the possibility of subsequent spray, one of the cutest sights on earth. Should the aggressor fail to get the hint, the skunk, striped or spotted, turns its body into an ominous curve, both nose and rear end pointed at the threat.

The animal pops out the nipples leading from its grape-size anal glands, then rotates them like an anti-aircraft gun, at the same time adjusting the spray like a hose nozzle. When face to face with an aggressor, the skunk aims a jet at the attacker's eyes. When the predator is at a distance, the skunk sprays a mist up to 15 feet.

The system is a highly evolved version of the glands for scent marking possessed by all carnivores. Think unneutered cats. Europe has no wild skunks; South America's zorillo and Asia's stink badger have the same capability.

Most who have been skunked say the smell is indescribably horrible, and many find it literally nauseating. But some who have worked at describing it say it's not the worst smell in the world, not as repellent as the scent of decomposition or defecation. It's dark, acrid, and earthy, akin in a disgusting way to coffee, chocolate, cannabis, or burning leaves.

A skunk's recognizable black-and-white markings have a role in defense. Predators learn and remember what the source of this unpleasant experience looks like. Most domestic dogs do not learn, so dog owners are the most likely among us to have had an intense skunk experience, especially if they allow their dogs off leash at night. Some dog owners may not be learning, either. The most successful predator on skunks is the great horned owl, which, like most birds (except vultures), has a poor sense of smell.

The skunk's short life—only three or four years in the wild before succumbing to disease, an owl, a very determined coyote, or a car—has its highlights. Both sexes gorge in the fall before retreating to a den, not to hibernate, exactly, but to enter into a lethargic stage and crowd together for warmth. (The collective noun for a group of skunks is a huddle.) Sometimes there's just one male in a huddle, definitely a highlight for him. In late winter, many males go from den to den, practicing polygamy with gusto. Some females use the ultimate weapon to reject the visitor, perhaps anticipating that the encounter may not be as pleasant for them as for him. The female skunk is what's known as an induced ovulator, which means that ovulation doesn't take place without mating. (This is true of cats, ferrets, rabbits, and, no kidding, Bactrian camels. Primates, including us, are spontaneous ovulators.) For skunks, the sex must be rough to induce ovulation. The male skunk bites the female on the back of her neck, often drawing blood.

So the female emerges into the spring sunlight pregnant and wounded. She's also thin, as skunks lose about half their body weight over the winter. The newborn kits open their eyes at four weeks and are sexually mature at about nine months. Their anal glands are operative within a week after birth.

There are people who very happily choose to invite skunks, de-scented and neutered, into their homes, despite the challenges. (A common question on pet skunk Web sites: How do I get her to use the litter box?) "They are more intelligent than most people you'll meet, stronger than any dog, and more hard-headed than any teenager," says Shelor Brumbeloe, who owned a skunk who lived 20 years and runs SkunksAsPets.com. They are undeniably endearing, quite content to accept an unthreatening human being as a huddle-mate. Breeders have waiting lists and charge $300 per animal.

Pet skunks are outlawed in 33 states for fear of rabies. Wild skunks are more worrisome. In Ontario, Canada, they impregnate skunk baits with an oral rabies vaccine—an approach that will soon be tested in the United States.

Toronto's parks are awash with skunks; they've become as common as squirrels. New York's Central Park, not yet. Skunks are just beginning to infiltrate the northern border of Manhattan, probably by way of a railroad bridge from the Bronx. The animals will probably be messy and potentially smelly, but, on the bright side, they could help control rats and cockroaches. To get along with them you must be very, very calm and avoid making any loud noises or aggressive actions. Will New Yorkers learn to make way for skunks?