Bats

These are kinda strange little critters, I have always thought. Rodents with wings. They squeak too, it's kinda creepy.
Yesterday, a bat got into the school and clung to the wall right outside the library; then flew around and returned to the same area from time to time; I do not know how aggressive they are but in order to control the risk students had to exit on a different floor to prevent the possibility of a bite with the inherent possibility of rabies.

I've seen pics of all kinds of bats, there are lil bitty ones and large ones too; anyone ever have personal bat experiences?

Watching bat flights in the summer is one of the most Texan things you can do Lucille! (especially if you're an old hippy ) Seeing those Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from under the Congress Avenue bridge in Austin is quite a scene. Heck they even named the hockey team after them!

When we were kids we used to ride our bikes through the storm drains that went under the main streets as a short cut to school. Well my friend was in front of me and when he got out into the light I could see why he was hollerin'. This bat bit and scratched him on the neck. Lucky for him he smacked it (killed it) and they were able to determine it wasn't rabid. Needless to say it was a few years later before we tried to do this again.

I live just down the road from a bat cave. Love to see the little guys in the summer. You would not believe how many bugs they eat. Because of the bats, I can going outside and sit on my back porch and not get eaten alive by the bugs. Just my 2 cents.

Pretty cool creatures in my book. When we were kids we were always excited to see them flying around. I did a book report on them in junior high. They really get a bad rap that they don't deserve (Kinda like snakes). They devour insects by the thousands nightly, mosquitos in particular. If there was ever a point in your towns history were they tried to kill/run off the bats you will probably be in one of those areas where mosquitos are out of control and they drive around spraying insceticide into the air.

The bats navigation system is truly a wonder in itself as well. Being nearly blind and using a type of sonar to fly is pretty amazing.

I also used to do a fair amount of spelunking when I first moved back to Indiana. We used to run across them all the time in large numbers. They have to rank up there with the most bizarre looking land animals I have ever seen.

That's werid the bats were in the storm drains, they usually do not go into them, they don't provide the proper temps. Are you sure you remember this story correctly? I mean, the bat bit and scratched him? I've worked with bats for many years, and I can tell you I've never heard of such a story to be true. What was he doing to the bat?

Originally Posted by DAND

When we were kids we used to ride our bikes through the storm drains that went under the main streets as a short cut to school. Well my friend was in front of me and when he got out into the light I could see why he was hollerin'. This bat bit and scratched him on the neck. Lucky for him he smacked it (killed it) and they were able to determine it wasn't rabid. Needless to say it was a few years later before we tried to do this again.

Originally Posted by Intense Herpetoculture

That's werid the bats were in the storm drains, they usually do not go into them, they don't provide the proper temps. Are you sure you remember this story correctly? I mean, the bat bit and scratched him? I've worked with bats for many years, and I can tell you I've never heard of such a story to be true. What was he doing to the bat?

I'm calling them storm drains but maybe that isn't what it would be called by someone else. Did you see the Terminator flick where Arnie and the kid were being chased by the semi? What I am talking about was like that. The tunnel we went through was "L" shaped with smaller tunnels that fed into the larger one. Chances are when we were riding though it just crossed his path and was just trying to get away from him as he was trying to get it off him. It wasn't like he was playing with or trying to disturb it or anything like that. We didn't even know it was there.